IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v98y2008i2p108-118.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysing farming practices to develop a numerical, operational model of farmers' decision-making processes: An irrigated hay cropping system in France

Author

Listed:
  • Merot, A.
  • Bergez, J.-E.
  • Capillon, A.
  • Wery, J.

Abstract

Conventional water management in the Crau plain needs to be modified to ensure higher irrigation efficiency, better crop production and quality, and reduced environmental impacts. Because experimental approaches to test modifications of water management are difficult in relation to border irrigation, simulation may provide an alternative. We describe the development of a conceptual model of the decision-making process that determines the irrigation management of a cropping system, on which a simulation model is to be based. Interviews focused on water management were carried out, to understand how farmers manage their irrigation and how their decisions determine the technical system applied on the farm. These interviews were then analyzed using the "model for action" concept, to generate a conceptual model of the decision system, which is organized as a sequence of decision rules describing irrigation management. This model contains five elements: (1) spatial and temporal factors relevant to decision-making in terms of irrigation and hay cropping; (2) no interaction between the grassland cropping system and the sheep rearing system; (3) five rules to describe irrigation management in the cropping system; (4) major water distribution constraints; and (5) two inter-related operations, hay mowing and irrigation. The rules for irrigation decision-making are written as: "If Then Else ". This conceptual model was used as the basis of a decision support system that includes models of grass growth and hydrology.

Suggested Citation

  • Merot, A. & Bergez, J.-E. & Capillon, A. & Wery, J., 2008. "Analysing farming practices to develop a numerical, operational model of farmers' decision-making processes: An irrigated hay cropping system in France," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 108-118, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:98:y:2008:i:2:p:108-118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308-521X(08)00057-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chatelin, M. H. & Aubry, C. & Poussin, J. C. & Meynard, J. M. & Masse, J. & Verjux, N. & Gate, Ph. & Le Bris, X., 2005. "DeciBle, a software package for wheat crop management simulation," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 77-99, January.
    2. Girard, N. & Hubert, B., 1999. "Modelling expert knowledge with knowledge-based systems to design decision aids : The example of a knowledge-based model on grazing management," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 123-144, February.
    3. Keating, B. A. & McCown, R. L., 2001. "Advances in farming systems analysis and intervention," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 70(2-3), pages 555-579.
    4. Papy, Francois & Attonaty, Jean-Marie & Laporte, Clotilde & Soler, Louis-Georges, 1988. "Work organization simulation as a basis for farm management advice (equipment and manpower, levels against climatic variability)," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 295-314.
    5. Aubry, C. & Papy, F. & Capillon, A., 1998. "Modelling decision-making processes for annual crop management," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 45-65, January.
    6. Dounias, I. & Aubry, C. & Capillon, A., 2002. "Decision-making processes for crop management on African farms. Modelling from a case study of cotton crops in northern Cameroon," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 73(3), pages 233-260, September.
    7. Bergez, J. -E. & Garcia, F. & Lapasse, L., 2004. "A hierarchical partitioning method for optimizing irrigation strategies," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 235-253, June.
    8. Mace, Karen & Morlon, Pierre & Munier-Jolain, Nicolas & Quere, Lionel, 2007. "Time scales as a factor in decision-making by French farmers on weed management in annual crops," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-3), pages 115-142, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Robert, Marion & Thomas, Alban & Sekhar, Muddu & Badiger, Shrinivas & Ruiz, Laurent & Raynal, Hélène & Bergez, Jacques-Eric, 2017. "Adaptive and dynamic decision-making processes: A conceptual model of production systems on Indian farms," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 279-291.
    2. Feola, Giuseppe & Binder, Claudia R., 2010. "Towards an improved understanding of farmers' behaviour: The integrative agent-centred (IAC) framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 2323-2333, October.
    3. Vanwindekens, Frédéric M. & Stilmant, Didier & Baret, Philippe V., 2013. "Development of a broadened cognitive mapping approach for analysing systems of practices in social–ecological systems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 352-362.
    4. Blazy, Jean-Marc & Tixier, Philippe & Thomas, Alban & Ozier-Lafontaine, Harry & Salmon, Frédéric & Wery, Jacques, 2010. "BANAD: A farm model for ex ante assessment of agro-ecological innovations and its application to banana farms in Guadeloupe," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(4), pages 221-232, May.
    5. Jahel, C. & Augusseau, X. & Lo Seen, D., 2018. "Modelling cropping plan strategies: What decision margin for farmers in Burkina Faso?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 17-33.
    6. Meylan, Louise & Merot, Anne & Gary, Christian & Rapidel, Bruno, 2013. "Combining a typology and a conceptual model of cropping system to explore the diversity of relationships between ecosystem services: The case of erosion control in coffee-based agroforestry systems in," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 52-64.
    7. Richard, Bastien & Bonté, Bruno & Delmas, Magalie & Braud, Isabelle & Cheviron, Bruno & Veyssier, Julien & Barreteau, Olivier, 2022. "A co-simulation approach to study the impact of gravity collective irrigation constraints on plant dynamics in Southern France," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    8. Salvador, R. & Latorre, B. & Paniagua, P. & Playán, E., 2011. "Farmers’ scheduling patterns in on-demand pressurized irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 86-96.
    9. Martin, G. & Duru, M. & Schellberg, J. & Ewert, F., 2012. "Simulations of plant productivity are affected by modelling approaches of farm management," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 25-34.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vanwindekens, Frédéric M. & Stilmant, Didier & Baret, Philippe V., 2013. "Development of a broadened cognitive mapping approach for analysing systems of practices in social–ecological systems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 352-362.
    2. Martin, G. & Duru, M. & Schellberg, J. & Ewert, F., 2012. "Simulations of plant productivity are affected by modelling approaches of farm management," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 25-34.
    3. Vayssières, Jonathan & Guerrin, François & Paillat, Jean-Marie & Lecomte, Philippe, 2009. "GAMEDE: A global activity model for evaluating the sustainability of dairy enterprises Part I - Whole-farm dynamic model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 128-138, July.
    4. Aubry, Christine & Paillat, Jean-Marie & Guerrin, Francois, 2006. "A conceptual representation of animal waste management at the farm scale: The case of the Reunion Island," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 88(2-3), pages 294-315, June.
    5. Nuthall, Peter L., 2012. "The intuitive world of farmers – The case of grazing management systems and experts," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 65-73.
    6. Biarnès, A. & Bailly, J.S. & Boissieux, Y., 2009. "Identifying indicators of the spatial variation of agricultural practices by a tree partitioning method: The case of weed control practices in a vine growing catchment," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 99(2-3), pages 105-116, February.
    7. Poussin, Jean-Christophe & Diallo, Youssouf & Legoupil, Jean-Claude, 2006. "Improved collective decision-making in action for irrigated rice farmers in the Senegal River Valley," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 299-323, September.
    8. Senthilkumar, Kalimuthu & Bergez, Jacques-Eric & Leenhardt, Delphine, 2015. "Can farmers use maize earliness choice and sowing dates to cope with future water scarcity? A modelling approach applied to south-western France," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 125-134.
    9. Herve, D. & Genin, D. & Migueis, J., 2002. "A modelling approach for analysis of agro pastoral activity at the one-farm level," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 187-206, March.
    10. Jahel, C. & Augusseau, X. & Lo Seen, D., 2018. "Modelling cropping plan strategies: What decision margin for farmers in Burkina Faso?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 17-33.
    11. Nesme, Thomas & Brisson, Nadine & Lescourret, Francoise & Bellon, Stephane & Crete, Xavier & Plenet, Daniel & Habib, Robert, 2006. "Epistics: A dynamic model to generate nitrogen fertilisation and irrigation schedules in apple orchards, with special attention to qualitative evaluation of the model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 90(1-3), pages 202-225, October.
    12. Kaufmann, Brigitte A., 2011. "Second-order cybernetics as a tool to understand why pastoralists do what they do," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(9), pages 655-665.
    13. F. Grelot & J. Arnal & Pauline Bremond & Katrin Erdlenbruch & C. Durand & S. Durand & G. Gleyses & P. Jarnet & M. Liberti & S. Martini & A. Richard-Ferroudji & L. Albrecht & Jean-Stéphane Bailly & N. , 2009. "Risk perception and economic valuation of flood exposure. Study of two hydrologically contrasted territories [Perception du risque et évaluation économique de l'exposition aux inondations. Étude de," Working Papers hal-02593242, HAL.
    14. Robert, Marion & Thomas, Alban & Sekhar, Muddu & Badiger, Shrinivas & Ruiz, Laurent & Raynal, Hélène & Bergez, Jacques-Eric, 2017. "Adaptive and dynamic decision-making processes: A conceptual model of production systems on Indian farms," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 279-291.
    15. Dounias, I. & Aubry, C. & Capillon, A., 2002. "Decision-making processes for crop management on African farms. Modelling from a case study of cotton crops in northern Cameroon," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 73(3), pages 233-260, September.
    16. Nesme, Thomas & Bellon, Stephane & Lescourret, Francoise & Senoussi, Rachid & Habib, Robert, 2005. "Are agronomic models useful for studying farmers' fertilisation practices?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 297-314, March.
    17. Plénet, Daniel & Giauque, Pierre & Navarro, Eric & Millan, Muriel & Hilaire, Christian & Hostalnou, Eric & Lyoussoufi, Abder & Samie, Jean-François, 2009. "Using on-field data to develop the EFI© information system to characterise agronomic productivity and labour efficiency in peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) orchards in France," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 100(1-3), pages 1-10, April.
    18. Chatelin, M. H. & Aubry, C. & Poussin, J. C. & Meynard, J. M. & Masse, J. & Verjux, N. & Gate, Ph. & Le Bris, X., 2005. "DeciBle, a software package for wheat crop management simulation," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 77-99, January.
    19. Rizzo, Davide & Therond, Olivier & Lardy, Romain & Murgue, Clément & Leenhardt, Delphine, 2019. "A rapid, spatially explicit approach to describe cropping systems dynamics at the regional scale," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 491-503.
    20. Paul Stock & Rob J.F. Burton, 2011. "Defining Terms for Integrated (Multi-Inter-Trans-Disciplinary) Sustainability Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(8), pages 1-24, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:98:y:2008:i:2:p:108-118. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.