How to Address the Sustainability Transition of Farming Systems? A Conceptual Framework to Organize Research

Guillaume Martin, Sandrine Allain, Jacques-Eric Bergez, Delphine Burger-Leenhardt, Julie Constantin, Michel Duru, Laurent Hazard, Camille Lacombe, Danièle Magda, Marie-Angélina Magne, Julie Ryschawy, Vincent Thénard, Hélène Tribouillois and Magali Willaume
Additional contact information
Guillaume Martin: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
Sandrine Allain: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
Jacques-Eric Bergez: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
Delphine Burger-Leenhardt: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
Julie Constantin: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
Michel Duru: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
Laurent Hazard: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
Camille Lacombe: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
Danièle Magda: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
Marie-Angélina Magne: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, ENSFEA, INRA-INPT-ENSAT, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
Julie Ryschawy: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
Vincent Thénard: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
Hélène Tribouillois: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
Magali Willaume: AGIR, Université de Toulouse, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: Stakeholders from academic, political, and social spheres encourage the development of more sustainable forms of agriculture. Given its scale and scope, the sustainability transition is a challenge to the entire agricultural sector. The main question is, how to support the transition process? In this article, we explore how agricultural science can address the sustainability transition of farming systems to understand and support transition processes. We discuss the potential for articulating three research approaches: comprehensive analysis, co-design, and simulation modeling. Comprehensive analysis of the sustainability transition provides perspectives on the interplay between resources, resource management, and related performances of farming systems on the one hand and technical, economic, and sociocultural dimensions of change on the other. Co-design of the sustainability transition stimulates local-scale transition experiments in the real world and identification of alternatives for change. Simulation modeling explores future-oriented scenarios of management at multiple levels and assesses their impacts. We illustrate the articulation of research approaches with two examples of research applied to agricultural water management and autonomy in crop-livestock systems. The resulting conceptual framework is the first one developed to organize research to understand and support the sustainability transition of farming systems.

Keywords: sustainability; transition; simulation modeling; comprehensive analysis; co-design; mixed methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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