This article reports on the long-term involvement of research agronomists in a design process of agricultural systems in a water catchment area. While agriculture is facing increasing challenges to meet current societal expectations, several studies in agronomy have focused on the design processes that allow farmers to change their agricultural systems. Most of these processes have been dedicated to designing target agricultural systems but, more recently, several studies have acknowledged that agro-ecological practices replace farmers as the actual designers of their own production systems. In this context, how can agronomists support such design processes? How does a better understanding of these processes challenge the inputs that research agronomists can propose, to support them? We contribute to answering these questions by reviewing a case study of a design process supported and analyzed by research agronomists over several years. This case illustrates that the design of agricultural systems is a process that exceeds invention: the implementation of the initial design solutions produces information that should be used to review those same solutions, in order to reach the design goal. The case study shows that the design process depends on a tension between the exploration of an ambitious desirable future and its actual implementation. To foster dialogue between “desirable” and “actual”, we show how the researchers involved in this case provided a range of inputs that supported typical design activities (grounding, fostering design reasoning, reinterpreting this reasoning, and design strategy throughout the process), thus opening new avenues of research in agronomy.
En el presente trabajo se presenta un estudio de la implementación del Fitomejoramiento Participativo en Cuba, una metodología sustentada sobre la base de la experiencia adquirida por un grupo de investigadores, agricultores y técnicos. La propuesta presenta en materiales y...
El presente trabajo tuvo como objetivo mostrar las experiencias en el cultivo del arroz en el mundo, así como de varias regiones de Cuba, donde las ferias de diversidad constituyeron la mejor forma de dar acceso rápido y eficiente a...
In the 90’s first steps were taken in Cuba to strengthen family farming. A participatory seeds breeding, multiplication and diffusion project started, a challenge to Cuban scientists, not used to involve farmers in the decision making process and recognizing them as...
La rencontre des chercheurs qui s’interrogent sur l’efficacité de leurs interventions pour accompagner les acteurs dans les processus de changement constitue une occasion pour s’interroger sur les méthodes de recherche à développer lors de travaux réalisés avec les acteurs :...
Organic farming is recognized as one source for innovation helping agriculture to develop sustainably. However, the understanding of innovation in agriculture is characterized by technical optimism, relying mainly on new inputs and technologies originating from research. The paper uses the...