1,721,083 research outputs found
A method to identify and map the land use patterns relevant for agro-environmental policies in agricultural landscapes.
No full textThe association of natural and farmed areas is of primary importance for ecological networks in agricultural landscapes. The main goal of this work is to present a method to rapidly quantify and map the spatial configurations (SC) of the main landscape elements in farmed landscapes. Such land use patterns are relevant for agro-environmental policies since a better knowledge of main CS in landscapes is needed (Forman and Wilson, 1995; Benoit et al., 2012). Such CS can support an evaluation of the ecosystems services provided by agricultural landscapes in view of the “greening” measures of the next CAP (Lefevre et al., 2012) and locally the integration of ecological networks in planning of agricultural landscapes (Pinto-Correia et al., 2006).
The method we developed was in four steps: (1) To identify the main objectives of agro-environmental policies and of their relationship with local land uses; (2) to qualify the CS relevant for policies through field surveys, aerial photos observation, qualitative spatial representations, also in order to describe each CS by spatial indicators; (3) to test the relevance of the indicators describing CS using Pearson Chi-squared and Wilcoxon signed rank tests; (4) to map the spatial distribution of the identified CS in the analyzed agricultural landscape. We applied this method to a case study in Southern Tuscany, a Mediterranean inland hilly landscape of 1500 ha (Figure 1a).
Relevant agro-environmental policy objectives were the protection of surface water from nitrates, the protection of soil quality and the conservation of the cultural landscape diversity (Marraccini et al., 2009). With respect to these objectives, several land elements and uses (patch and linear networks) were described to have an influence on the identified objectives (Lefevre et al., 2012): agricultural land uses (arable crops 83% of the landscape surface, permanent crops 10%, fallows 2%), natural vegetation (woods, hedgerows, isolated trees), water bodies, human settlements. Starting from this preliminary information, we identified four CS in the studied area, differing for the different composition and arrangement of land uses. Arable crops (mainly winter wheat) were part of each CS, e.g. as main land use nearby rivers in CS1 or in a mosaic of human settlements and permanent crops in CS2. The description of the five CS and of the indicators identified is in Table 1. Selected indicators were proper to distinguish CS and were all statistically significant. The mapping of the CS showed a total coverage of the analyzed landscape, with some overlapping among different CS (Figure 1b shows an examples for CS1 and CS2).
The method reliability has been tested on another grassland oriented landscape in Central France showing a higher predictive value of agro-environmental services for Mediterranean landscapes characterized by an higher land use diversity (Marraccini, 2010).
References:
Benoit M., Rizzo D., Marraccini E., Moonen C., Galli M., Lardon S., Rapey H., Thenail C., Bonari E. (2012). Landscape agronomy to deal with agricultural landscapes dynamics. Landscape Ecology 27: 1385-1394.
Forman R. T. T., Wilson E. O. (1995). Land mosaic: the ecology of landscapes and regions. Cambridge University Press, 632 pp.
Lefevre M., Espinosa M., Gomez y Paloma S. (2012). The influence of the Common Agricultural Policy on agricultural landscapes. JRC Scientific and Policy reports, 79 pp.
Marraccini E. (2010). La valutazione delle funzioni agro-ambientali: un approccio agronomico – territoriale. Tesi di Perfezionamento in Scienze Agrarie, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and AgroParisTech, 339 pp. http://pastel.archives-ouvertes.fr/pastel-00589832
Marraccini E., Galli M., Rapey H., Lardon S., Bonari E. (2009). Multiple agro-environmental functions targeted by decision-makers: a compared approach in two European regions. In: Breuste J., Kozova M., Finka M. (Eds), Proceedings of the European International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE) Conference, Salzburg (Austria), 167-172.
Pinto-Correia, T., Gustavsson, R., Pirnat, J. (2006). Bridging the gap between centrally defined policies and local decisions – Towards more sensitive and creative rural landscape management. Landscape Ecology 21: 333–346.
Rizzo D., Marraccini E., Lardon S., Rapey H., Debolini M., Thenail C., Benoit M. (2012). How can landscape management be enhanced by farming systems? A landscape agronomy perspective. European IFSA Symposium, 1-4 July 2012 Aarhus, Danemark, 9 pp
Des pratiques agroécologiques à la conception de systèmes agri-alimentaires territorialisés : exploitation agricole et design territorial
No full textLa conception de systèmes agri-alimentaires territorialisés comme démarche de design territorial à l’échelle de
l’exploitation agricole a été abordée dans un atelier, lors
des Entretiens du Pradel. L’atelier, au travers d’une réflexion collective sur la notion de design territorial à
l’échelle de l’exploitation agricole, de l’illustration à partir
de l’analyse du cas de la Ferme Expérimentale de Mirecourt ainsi que d’une discussion collective, a permis de dégager des moments-clés de la situation de design. Ces moments clés ont été confrontés à deux autres situations de
design (transition à l’agriculture de conservation à la
Ferme du Bois d’UniLaSalle et transition vers des systèmes agri-alimentaires territorialisés au Centro Avanzi de
l’Université de Pise) afin d’en tester la généricité. Au final,
le design territorial permet une relecture de ces cas à
l’échelle de l’exploitation en termes de relations au territoire local et ses acteurs
Bilans et flux de phosphore à l’échelle d’un territoire
No full textDans un contexte de dépendance européenne des ressources de phosphore minéral au niveau mondial, il semble opportun d’étudier les dynamiques territoriales locales du phosphore organique, assimilées à des « gisements locaux ». En effet, des gisements autres que minéraux existent mais ils sont soumis à des logiques de flux entre acteurs agricoles ou d’autres secteurs d’activité qui coexistent à différentes échelles : importations régionales d’amendements organiques, recyclages de sous-produits intra-région et échanges locaux entre agriculteurs et éleveurs.
Des études sur les flux de phosphore existent à l’échelle de l’exploitation ou de territoires administratifs ; elles sont en général appliquées sur une seule de ces deux échelles et de ce fait peuvent difficilement mettre en évidence les logiques des flux régionaux ou locaux entre acteurs des territoires. La présente étude s’applique à deux entités de fonctionnement agricole, que sont l’exploitation et le bassin d’approvisionnement. En particulier, le bassin d’approvisionnement semble être un concept pertinent pour étudier les logiques de ces flux puisqu’il mobilise au sein d’une filière des acteurs issus de la production, de la collecte et de la transformation agricoles.
Nous cherchons à comprendre et quantifier les flux de phosphore à l’échelle d’un territoire en mobilisant ces deux échelles afin de tester leur pertinence pour proposer des voies d’amélioration de la durabilité de la gestion territoriale du phosphore. Cette étude à caractère exploratoire vise à vérifier sa faisabilité et identifier les obstacles méthodologiques. Elle a été réalisée dans un territoire du nord du département de l’Aisne, incluant les cœurs des bassins de collecte d’une coopérative et d’une sucrerie et correspondant à deux petites régions naturelles différenciées par leurs systèmes de production : grandes cultures à dominante betteravière d’une part, polyculture et polyculture-élevage d’autre part. Dans les sols de ces deux petites régions, la classe de fertilité élevée en P (selon Regifert) est prédominante mais avec une dynamique de diminution des teneurs en P extractible dans les dix dernières années.
Dans un premier temps, les différents flux internes et externes au territoire ont été identifiés par enquête et quantifiés, soit via des bases de données gérées par la coopérative et la sucrerie soit par estimation quand les données n’étaient pas accessibles ou disponibles. La quantification de ces flux a permis d’approcher un bilan du phosphore à l’échelle du territoire. Des bilans globaux annuels du phosphore à l’échelle de l’exploitation ont été calculés après enquête sur un échantillon de 26 exploitations représentatives de la diversité des types présents sur le territoire et adhérentes de la coopérative. Sur ce même échantillon, les déterminants des choix de gestion du phosphore par les agriculteurs ont été identifiés. La quantification des flux et les bilans ont porté sur la campagne 2014-2015.
La majorité (15/26) des bilans à l’exploitation sont déficitaires, de – 53 kg/ha à -10 kg.ha-1 (figure 1). Les bilans excédentaires (+10 à +27 kg.ha-1) s’observent fréquemment dans les grandes exploitations, betteravières -fortement utilisatrices de produits organiques- ou céréalières, alors que les éleveurs ou polyculteurs-éleveurs ont des bilans équilibrés ou légèrement déficitaires. Les analyses de terre réalisées régulièrement par la majorité des agriculteurs (70%) ont beaucoup plus souvent pour but de contrôler l’absence de carence que de servir de base à un pilotage fin de la fertilisation. Les agriculteurs n’utilisant pas d’analyses de terres ont presque toujours un bilan négatif (6/7). La grande majorité des exploitations utilisent des produits organiques qui couvrent en moyenne 47 % des entrées de phosphore. Leur origine est variée : écumes de sucrerie, composts importés dans le territoire, fumiers de bovins issus d’échanges paille-fumier. La part du phosphore entrant en provenance du territoire est en moyenne de l’ordre de 20%. Certains agriculteurs ont supprimé la fertilisation minérale tout en maintenant les apports organiques mais leurs bilans sont en général négatifs
Contribution of periurban farming systems to local food systems: a systemic innovation perspective
Full text linkThe debate on food security has highlighted the connection between periurban farming systems (PFS) and local food systems (LFS) for academic research. Several researchers have called for in-depth analysis of the participation and impact of farmers in LFS, and the systemic innovation perspective can provide relevant analysis of the sustainability of this agro-food system. The objective of the current study is to investigate the integration of PFS into LFS from the systemic innovation perspective, by analysing systemic failures and merits that hinder or promote the contribution of PFS to LFS for farmers and commercial actors. The case study is the LFS of the urban Pisa region in central Italy. Results show that farmers there are adapting to urban pressure, which improves the sustainability of their farming practices. At the same time, commercial actors have a commercial opportunity to include local farmers in their economic strategy. Nevertheless, individual initiatives must be coordinated to support the sustainability of both LFS and PFS. This study thus developed an innovative method to identify systemic failures and merits for farmers and commercial actors to address sustainability strategies at the territorial level
Intensification, periurbanization and specialization of agriculture as significant short-term land system dynamics in the Mediterranean basin
No full textMediterranean land systems are undergoing significant changes in terms of
agricultural land use and practices. In the literature these changes are highlighted by a number of local or regional studies, however, an overview of the land system changes at the Mediterranean basin level is lacking. This paper identifies the main land system dynamics over a short time period (2005-2015) and their location, in order to highlight the trajectories
that are also taking place in other parts of the world. We identified four significant types of change: (1) from mixed agriculture to specialized fruit groves; (2) from agricultural areas to
urban and/or periurban areas; (3) from agroforestry to arable systems, and (4) from
predominantly bare soils to agricultural areas. These ongoing dynamics can be characterized as intensification, periurbanization and specialization of agriculture
Chapitre 2 - Concevoir son système de production à partir des caractéristiques du territoire
No full textAnalisi della capacità produttiva delle aree periurbane: il caso delle produzioni zootecniche nell’area pisana.
No full textUnderstanding farming practices to rethink land change transitions: a research challenge
No full textAgriculture uses and manages dynamically 38% of the global land surface. Farming practices are evolving to
intensify current farming systems in parallel with the expansion or the abandonment of exploited surfaces, under
systems of constraints and opportunities ranging from local to global scales. Moreover, major agricultural land
changes are prospected by near future scenarios for increasing in global population and improvement of standards of
living for poorest regions. As a result, agriculture is undertaking a wide range of rapid adaptations whose
consequences are too subtle to be consistently observed in the short-middle term by global or regional monitoring,
such as remote sensing techniques. Nonetheless, these evolutions impact the land system management at
increasingly wider scales. Accordingly agronomy has been called anew to integrate farming practices on grazed and
cultivated fields in the wider spatial context (Benoit, Rizzo et al. 2012, Landscape Ecol. 27:1385-1394). In this
session we will discuss how a better understanding of farming practices can help rethinking land change transitions
(theme 1). The underpinning aim is promoting a greater involvement of agronomy in the evolution of a
multidisciplinary approach to the land system management. We will structure our session on three main challenges.
First, reflecting on the theoretical frameworks adopted by several disciplines in the study of agricultural land
transitions at different scales and from different perspectives. We will focus on the rural landscapes management as a
major cross-disciplinary study object to increase the synergy among agronomy, geography, and ecology within the land system science. Second, improving methods to describe and understand agricultural land change transitions.
Farming practices, with their continuous adaptability to the evolving context (e.g., climate change, price volatility,
farm household strategies, etc.) translate relevantly the large variability of agricultural land changes over time and
space on Earth. Nevertheless many difficulties remain to integrate them in the analysis of the land systems. For that,
we will evaluate existing and emerging methods that tackle farming practices at regional and wider levels. Third,
enhancing the assessment and design of farming systems to deal with multiple issues. Short term issues for
agricultural land use (e.g., feeding the world and increasing the production of biomass for energy) are faced with
long term issues of resource management (e.g., freshwater protection, biodiversity conservation). We will focus on
some examples about the spatial allocation of crop patterns – and of the associated farming practices – to question
how environmental and societal needs can be met
How to analyse the contribution of periurban farming system to local food system? Comparison from different approaches on local food system.
No full textThe recent claims on food security have arisen reflections on the potential contribution of Periurban
Farming System (PuFS) in feeding cities, considering its “geographical proximity” with urban dwellers.
Besides, the weakness of global food system have led policy-makers and researchers to support studies
on the “relocalization” of food production, as a way to support local economy and territorial development.
Thus, a link has been made between PuFSs and Local Food System (LFS).
Nevertheless, in literature what exactly identifies a food as a “local food” is a matter of debate. Moreover,
there are few contributions on the PuFS’ functioning, considering the peculiar territorial production’s
conditions, due to urbanisation. In this way PuFS’ contribution may be underestimated.
The objective of this study is to analyze the potential contribution of PuFS to LFS, considering the existing
approaches on LFS. To do so, the analysis focuses on how the territory of “local” is defined by such
approaches with respect to food production, to understand how the particular conditions of PuFSs’
production can be or have already been included.
Four approaches were selected dealing with the contribution of local agriculture to LFS: the Local AgroFood
System (SYAL), the Foodshed, the Urban Food System, and the Alternative Food Network (AFN).
The results show that each approach associates to the term “local” different definitions of “territory”,
affecting the inclusion of different aspects of the farming system put in place in a specific territory. SYAL
considers the local farming system as a tool for territorial development; studies are focused on the
selection of quality’s production, and the territory seems to be more a symbolic area, where the specific
conditions of PuFS’ production results of less relevance. In Foodshed and Urban food system approach
the starting point is a food demand which seeks a specific production in a geographically well delineated
territory, which changes depending on the requests. While foodsheds’s studies are mainly focused on
specific users, studying the cropping system of “useful” productions, Urban Food ones takes the institutions’ perspective, dealing with variegated diets’ requests from the city. Finally AFN focuses on the relationships between consumers and farmers, and Short Food Supply Chains consider the relationships between periurban farmers and close urban dwellers, which define the territory.
The comparison of LFS’s approaches helps the assessment of the link between PuFS and LFS. In this way it supports policy-makers and researchers dealing with local food security
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