Conventionalised vs. agroecological practices on organic vegetable farms: Investigating the influence of farm structure in a bifurcation perspective. (May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pépin, Antonin; Morel, Kevin; van der Werf, Hayo M.G.
• Is Part Of: Agricultural systems. Volume 190(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-05
• Subjects: Agroecology -- Horticulture -- Farming diversity -- Conventionalisation hypothesis -- Small farms -- Adoption; Agricultural systems -- Periodicals; Agriculture -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; 338.16
• DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2021.103129
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0308-521X

Abstract

Abstract: CONTEXT: According to the bifurcation hypothesis, a gap may be growing between "agroecological" organic farms, which rely mostly on ecosystem services, and "conventionalised" ones, which rely more on external inputs, related to contrasting evolutions in farm structure (e.g. size, specialisation) and supply chains. OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to 1) analyse the diversity of organic vegetable farming systems in France, 2) investigate the extent to which bifurcation can be observed among organic vegetable farms in France and 3) investigate the extent to which structural factors that can reflect bifurcation (e.g. profiles of "new organic farmers", marketing channels, farm size) are related to conventionalised or agroecological OF. METHODS: We developed a farm typology based on Factor Analysis of Mixed Data (FAMD) and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) using information obtained from an online survey with 165 complete answers. We used composite indexes that aggregated primary indicators to compare the biotechnical and socio-economic dimensions of farms among clusters. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The diversity that exists in organic vegetable farms, with large differences among farm clusters, can be interpreted as a snapshot sign of bifurcation, which is a temporal process, and support hypotheses that relate farming structure to farming practices in this perspective. Our study suggests that 1) the dichotomy that contrasts "agroecological" to "conventionalised" organic farms should be considered as a conceptual perspective with two poles and a gradient of farms between them; 2) farms that were created as organic tended to be more agroecological than farms that were converted from conventional farming; 3) new entrants to organic farming had the best agroecological performances; 4) the best agroecological performances were associated with short supply chains, although good agroecological performances did occur with some long supply chains; and 5) the smallest farms were more likely to implement agroecological practices, but farm size did not have the same influence on all agroecological practices. SIGNIFICANCE: These findings confirm the influence of structural factors that reflect bifurcation of the degree of conventionalisation or agroecology of organic vegetable farming. For a given set of structural factors (i.e. farmer profile, farm size and supply chain), however, agroecological performances varied greatly. This suggests levels of freedom to develop more agroecological organic practices for a given farm size or supply chain that should be further investigated. Graphical abstract: Unlabelled Image Highlights: Organic vegetable farms showed a range of farm structure, related to practices with different levels of agroecology. The smallest farms were the most agroecological, while the most conventionalised practices were associated with a large percentage of sheltered area. Large farms were less agroecological on average, but some had agroecological performances similar to those of smaller farms. The coexistence of agroecological and conventionalised farms may result from bifurcation, where the role of new entrants needs further research.