Description du projet
Favoriser l’accès des petits exploitants à la diversité des cultures
La diversité des cultures est essentielle pour les petits exploitants agricoles des zones arides. Cependant, les processus qui déterminent l’accès à la diversité des cultures ne sont pas entièrement compris. Des recherches antérieures laissent penser qu’il pourrait s’appuyer sur les réseaux sociaux associés aux semences et à la distribution d’informations. Néanmoins, ces réseaux révèlent plusieurs tendances. Le projet ARISER, financé par l’UE, identifiera les modèles de réseau les plus importants pour maintenir une grande diversité de cultures dans les exploitations dans le temps ou pour changer de culture, évaluera les relations entre les modèles de réseau et la stabilité temporelle de la production végétale, ainsi que l’impact des caractéristiques socio-économiques. ARISER concevra un protocole standardisé pour collecter des données longitudinales et de panel dans trois zones arides d’Afrique, élaborera un modèle de simulation innovant et développera de nouvelles méthodes statistiques pour l’analyse des réseaux.
Objectif
Crop diversity is a key resource for smallholder farmers in drylands, as it plays a major role in their resilience by stabilizing crop production in the face of climate variability. Although access to crop diversity is pivotal for these farmers, the processes driving access are not fully understood. Previous research indicates that access to crop diversity may rely on the social networks through which crop seeds and information are diffused. These networks display a wide diversity of patterns, including differences in the composition of the actors involved and in the structure of the pathways through which seeds and information diffuse. Understanding the consequences of these different network patterns for crop diversity and their implication for farm resilience is a crucial and timely challenge. In this project, I will address this challenge by combining theory and methods from agroecology and social network research to tackle three objectives: (1) identify the most critical network patterns to maintain high crop diversity on farms over time or to change crops, (2) assess the relation between network patterns and temporal stability of crop production at the farm level, and (3) assess how farmers socioeconomic characteristics affect their access to seed and information. To reach these objectives, I will (i) design a standardized protocol to collect longitudinal and panel data across three dryland areas in Africa, which could serve as a reference for future studies, (ii) build an innovative simulation model combining agent-based and network approaches, and (iii) develop new statistical methods for network analysis. This project will enable a major advance in our understanding of the processes driving farmers access to crop diversity and their resilience. By doing so, it will contribute to improve decision-making for smallholder farmers adaptation to increased climate variability in drylands.
Champ scientifique
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Institution d’accueil
75016 Paris
France