2016/01/01 by Jean-Marie Lusson, Lusson, Jean-Marie, Xavier Coquil +1
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #0 #Agriculture and Rural Development Research #Agroforestry and silvopastoral systems #Apprentissages #Autonomie #Autonomy #Learning #Mixed farming #Polyculture-élevage #Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis #Transition
paper · pdf · doi:10.15454/1.4622868226062979e12
openalex publication_date 2016/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
How to facilitate transitions towards self-sufficiency in systems with cattle? To answer this question, the project PraiFacE set several series of interviews including 42 farms in a stable state and 50 having walked towards self-sufficiency, but also to future breeders, technicians and actors of local water policies. Their analyses revealed brakes (technical nature of the management of grassland systems, difficulty of securing feed supply ...) and motivation to change (animal health by encouraging more grass in the system, improve work ...). It also reveals the difficulties (feed autonomy ...) and factors facilitating transition (practice exchange groups, contracting environmental measures ...). It showed that transitions arose from combined effect of several factors such as information giving access to an out of reach logic of action, the awareness of a gap between what to think and what to do, emergence of practical or economic difficulties or external requirement. Transition is a change of job: a new pragmatic consistency appears between the daily farmer actions (object), his agricultural practices, what makes sense and is important in the exercise of his job (professional standards) and how he takes part to the society (values). During transition, farmer changes jobs with key-tools, as the implementation of rotational grazing that forces breeders constantly to adjust their management. The farmer is always the main actor of his transition. This work made it possible to identify tools that are potential ressources for transition but also to build new resources in connection with the concerns captured during the investigations.