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Experiencing Organic Mixed Crop Dairy Systems: A Step-by-Step Design Centred on a Long-term Experiment

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Organic Farming, Prototype for Sustainable Agricultures

Abstract

To provide more sustainability for their farming activity, farmers may attempt to redesign it according to their perception of their global environment. This paper focuses on the step-by-step design approach. The main objective of this approach is to produce resources to empower farmers to develop a more sustainable farming activity. We postulate that self-sufficient agricultural systems designed on the basis of natural land properties will generate sustainable farming activity. The methodology developed is anthropocentric and centred on a long-term experiment. Two organic and self-sufficient mixed-crop dairy systems were designed in 2004 at the INRA ASTER-Mirecourt Experimental Station. Research scientists designed and redesigned the systems, step-by-step, according to their perception of the natural properties of their agro-ecological environment. Since 2005, the two systems have been evolving by repairing system malfunctions or by improving their self-sufficiency. Step-by-step design is an approach based on methodologies that create experience in situations. This approach has proven its relevance to create knowledge for (i) the transition of farming systems towards more self-sufficient forms of agricultural activity, and (ii) the adaptation of systems to environmental fluctuations.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the collective of the INRA ASTER-Mirecourt Experimental Station for its active participation in this work. The authors thank Benoît Dedieu, Pascal Béguin and Cécile Fiorelli for their advices during the writing of this paper. The authors would also like to thank two ANR projects for their financial support: DISCOTECH (ANR-05-PADD-04-01) and O2LA (ANR-09-STRA-09).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRA, UR055 SAD ASTER, 662 avenue Louis Buffet, 88500, Mirecourt, France

    Xavier Coquil, Jean-Louis Fiorelli, André Blouet & Catherine Mignolet

Authors
  1. Xavier Coquil
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  2. Jean-Louis Fiorelli
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  3. André Blouet
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  4. Catherine Mignolet
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xavier Coquil .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Unité Ecodéveloppement, INRA, Avignon Cedex 09, France

    Stéphane Bellon

  2. Unité Ecodéveloppement, INRA, Avignon Cedex 09, France

    Servane Penvern

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Coquil, X., Fiorelli, JL., Blouet, A., Mignolet, C. (2014). Experiencing Organic Mixed Crop Dairy Systems: A Step-by-Step Design Centred on a Long-term Experiment. In: Bellon, S., Penvern, S. (eds) Organic Farming, Prototype for Sustainable Agricultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7927-3_11

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