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Reshaping boundaries between farming systems and the environment

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Farming Systems Research into the 21st Century: The New Dynamic

Abstract

In modern societies, farmers not only have to be efficient in food production, but also ensure that ecological services such as pollination, pest control or biodiversity conservation are effective. Therefore, the role of the environment needs to be reconsidered in redesigning or assessing farming systems. This chapter questions and redefines the usual boundaries between a farming system and its environment. It includes three sections. First, we examine the dynamics of literature related to environmental perspectives in farming systems analysis, encompassing several levels of organization. Then, we analyse the contribution of some proposals derived from ecological forms of agriculture (e.g. organic, integrated), in terms of system properties and boundaries, as well as the delineation of expected functions. Finally, by examining agroecology, we address how farming systems can integrate ecological issues, and identify research perspectives which may inform the further development of farming systems thinking and practices.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A functional focus within Farming Systems Research is also referred to in Dixon et al. (2001: 10).

  2. 2.

    To briefly describe the approach, bibliographic elements of articles including the roots “agr” or “farm” or “eco” were extracted from the CAB database (period: 1973–2009). Groups were identified, based on agricultural qualifications (e.g. low-input agriculture, LowAgr in Fig. 14.2). Queries were done for each qualified agriculture, leading to a matrix combining agricultures and authors. This combination is mapped as a network (using Netdraw software and a visualization algorithm). Each point in Fig. 14.2 represents an author and the agriculture(s) s/he refers to (with an occurrence threshold >2 articles). The size of a point reflects the author’s contribution to one or several agricultures (centrality of intermediarity). For instance, two authors mentioned at the bottom of Fig. 14.2 refer to both organic and precision agriculture.

  3. 3.

    Beyond a general identification of organic agriculture to certified products, two other interpretations can be mentioned. In the first one, ‘organic matters’ is a metaphor giving a central role to humus in the sustainable management of soils fertility and land (‘land care’). In a second one, organic refers to the idea of living organism, which can be applied at various levels, including at farm level.

  4. 4.

    International Organization for Biological and Integrated Control of Noxious Animals and Plants (IOBC). The West Palearctic Regional Section (WPRS) covers European and Near East countries, as well as North African countries.

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Acknowledgements

We warmly thank Walter Rossing for his valuable input in the design of this paper and the fruitful discussions that we had during the early stages of the writing. We also thank the various colleagues who encouraged us in this enterprise, and those who shared ideas with us during International Summer Schools of Agroecology (ISSAE).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sciences for Action and Development, Ecodevelopment Unit, INRA PACA, Avignon, France

    Stéphane Bellon

  2. UMR CNRS 5174 Evolution et Diversité Biologique, Université de Toulouse, Castanet-Tolosan, France

    Jean-Louis Hemptinne

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  1. Stéphane Bellon
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  2. Jean-Louis Hemptinne
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Correspondence to Stéphane Bellon .

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  1. Feistmantelstrasse 4, Vienna, 1180, Austria

    Ika Darnhofer

  2. Livelihood Systems, Agricultural and Rural, Shrewsbury Road 59, Church Stretton, SY6 6EX, Shropshire, United Kingdom

    David Gibbon

  3. , SAD, INRA, INRA - Clermont-Theix, Saint-Genes-Champanelle, 63122, France

    Benoît Dedieu

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Bellon, S., Hemptinne, JL. (2012). Reshaping boundaries between farming systems and the environment. In: Darnhofer, I., Gibbon, D., Dedieu, B. (eds) Farming Systems Research into the 21st Century: The New Dynamic. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4503-2_14

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