IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v13y2023i1p159-d1028854.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Co-Design and Experimentation of a Prototype of Agroecological Micro-Farm Meeting the Objectives Set by Climate-Smart Agriculture

Author

Listed:
  • Stan Selbonne

    (Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Research Unit ASTRO, F-97170 Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France)

  • Loïc Guindé

    (Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Research Unit ASTRO, F-97170 Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France)

  • François Causeret

    (Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Research Unit ASTRO, F-97170 Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France)

  • Thierry Bajazet

    (Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Research Unit ASTRO, F-97170 Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France)

  • Lucienne Desfontaines

    (Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Research Unit ASTRO, F-97170 Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France)

  • Mathieu Duval

    (Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Research Unit ASTRO, F-97170 Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France)

  • Jorge Sierra

    (Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Research Unit ASTRO, F-97170 Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France)

  • Franck Solvar

    (Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Research Unit ASTRO, F-97170 Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France)

  • Régis Tournebize

    (Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Research Unit ASTRO, F-97170 Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France)

  • Jean-Marc Blazy

    (Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Research Unit ASTRO, F-97170 Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France)

Abstract

Developing climate-smart agriculture is an urgent necessity to ensure the food security of a growing global population, to improve the adaptation of agricultural systems to climatic hazards, and to reach a negative carbon balance. Different approaches are being explored to achieve those objectives, including the development of new technologies for efficiency improvements to current systems and substitution of chemical inputs by bio-inputs, but the urgency of the climatic, social, and environmental context calls for more disruptive actions to be taken. We propose an approach to the design of climate-smart production systems structured in four steps: (1) diagnosis of the study region on the basis of the three pillars of climate-smart agriculture, (2) co-design of a disruptive system only based on agroecological and bioeconomic principles, (3) long-term experimentation of this system, and (4) in itinere adjustment of the system based on collected data and on-field evaluations with agricultural stakeholders. The outcome of this approach is the agroecological microfarm named KARUSMART, settled in 2018 on one hectare in the North Basse-Terre region of Guadeloupe (F.W.I.). This study presents its co-design and experimentation stages as well as the first performance results. At the end of the first two years, this microfarm showed a clear improvement in 15 of the 19 indicators used to evaluate the performance of the actual farming systems in the study region. Among the most striking results are a clear superiority in nutritional performance from 3 pers.ha −1 to 8 pers.ha −1 and a reduction in GHG balance from +2.4 tCO 2eq .ha −1 to −1.1 tCO 2eq .ha −1 for the study area and the microfarm, respectively. These results are promising for developing climate-smart agricultural systems and need to be consolidated further through longer-term monitoring data, the implementation of more similar systems in the study area, and the implementation of the design principles in other contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Stan Selbonne & Loïc Guindé & François Causeret & Thierry Bajazet & Lucienne Desfontaines & Mathieu Duval & Jorge Sierra & Franck Solvar & Régis Tournebize & Jean-Marc Blazy, 2023. "Co-Design and Experimentation of a Prototype of Agroecological Micro-Farm Meeting the Objectives Set by Climate-Smart Agriculture," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:1:p:159-:d:1028854
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/1/159/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/1/159/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Deaconu, Ana & Berti, Peter R. & Cole, Donald C. & Mercille, Geneviève & Batal, Malek, 2021. "Agroecology and nutritional health: A comparison of agroecological farmers and their neighbors in the Ecuadorian highlands," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    2. Daniel Hausknost & Ernst Schriefl & Christian Lauk & Gerald Kalt, 2017. "A Transition to Which Bioeconomy? An Exploration of Diverging Techno-Political Choices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-22, April.
    3. Brown, Mark T. & Campbell, Daniel E. & De Vilbiss, Christopher & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2016. "The geobiosphere emergy baseline: A synthesis," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 339(C), pages 92-95.
    4. Jha, Dayanatha, 2001. "Agricultural Research and Small Farms," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 56(1), 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. Tarsiguel, Laura & Dorey, Elodie & Dorel, Marc & Andrieu, Nadine, 2023. "Alternative practices to pesticide use in the Guadeloupe banana belt: Do biophysical constraints limit agroecological transitions?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).

    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. Joshi, P. K. & Pangare, V. & Shiferaw, B. & Wani, S. P. & Bouma, Jetske & Scott, Christopher, 2004. "Socioeconomic and policy research on watershed management in India: synthesis of past experiences and needs for future research," IWMI Research Reports H035345, International Water Management Institute.
    2. Zeke Marshall & Paul E. Brockway, 2020. "A Net Energy Analysis of the Global Agriculture, Aquaculture, Fishing and Forestry System," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 1-27, June.
    3. Eyni-Nargeseh, Hamed & Asgharipour, Mohammad Reza & Rahimi-Moghaddam, Sajjad & Gilani, Abdolali & Damghani, Abdolmajid Mahdavi & Azizi, Khosro, 2023. "Which rice farming system is more environmentally friendly in Khuzestan province, Iran? A study based on emergy analysis," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 481(C).
    4. Chen, Yuhong & Lyu, Yanfeng & Yang, Xiangdong & Zhang, Xiaohong & Pan, Hengyu & Wu, Jun & Lei, Yongjia & Zhang, Yanzong & Wang, Guiyin & Xu, Min & Luo, Hongbin, 2022. "Performance comparison of urea production using one set of integrated indicators considering energy use, economic cost and emissions’ impacts: A case from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PC).
    5. Giannetti, Biagio F. & Marcilio, Maria De Fatima D.F.B. & Coscieme, Luca & Agostinho, Feni & Liu, Gengyuan & Almeida, Cecilia M.V.B., 2019. "Howard Odum’s “Self-organization, transformity and information”: Three decades of empirical evidence," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 407(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Wang, Xueqi & Liu, Gengyuan & Coscieme, Luca & Giannetti, Biagio F. & Hao, Yan & Zhang, Yan & Brown, Mark T., 2019. "Study on the emergy-based thermodynamic geography of the Jing-Jin-Ji region: Combined multivariate statistical data with DMSP-OLS nighttime lights data," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 397(C), pages 1-15.
    7. Xingguo Gu & Qixian Lai & Moucheng Liu & Ziqun He & Qingyang Zhang & Qingwen Min, 2019. "Sustainability Assessment of a Qingyuan Mushroom Culture System Based on Emergy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-13, September.
    8. Ollinaho, Ossi I. & Kröger, Markus, 2023. "Separating the two faces of “bioeconomy”: Plantation economy and sociobiodiverse economy in Brazil," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    9. Maria Backhouse & Malte Lühmann & Anne Tittor, 2022. "Global Inequalities in the Bioeconomy: Thinking Continuity and Change in View of the Global Soy Complex," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-15, May.
    10. Befort, N., 2020. "Going beyond definitions to understand tensions within the bioeconomy: The contribution of sociotechnical regimes to contested fields," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    11. Wolfgang Onyeali & Michael P. Schlaile & Bastian Winkler, 2023. "Navigating the Biocosmos: Cornerstones of a Bioeconomic Utopia," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-32, June.
    12. Paolo Vassallo & Claudia Turcato & Ilaria Rigo & Claudia Scopesi & Andrea Costa & Matteo Barcella & Giulia Dapueto & Mauro Mariotti & Chiara Paoli, 2021. "Biophysical Accounting of Forests’ Value under Different Management Regimes: Conservation vs. Exploitation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-20, April.
    13. Chen, Qiuwen & Ma, Xiaohan & Hu, Jiayu & Zhang, Xiaohong, 2023. "Comparison of comprehensive performance of kiwifruit production in China, Iran, and Italy based on emergy and carbon emissions," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 483(C).
    14. Lisa Biber-Freudenberger & Amit Kumar Basukala & Martin Bruckner & Jan Börner, 2018. "Sustainability Performance of National Bio-Economies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-20, August.
    15. Weiss, Gerhard & Hansen, Eric & Ludvig, Alice & Nybakk, Erlend & Toppinen, Anne, 2021. "Innovation governance in the forest sector: Reviewing concepts, trends and gaps," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    16. Birthal, Pratap S. & Joshi, P. K. & Kumar, Anjani, 2002. "Assessment of Research Priorities for Livestock Sector in India," Policy Papers 344968, ICAR National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NIAP).
    17. Walther Zeug & Alberto Bezama & Urs Moesenfechtel & Anne Jähkel & Daniela Thrän, 2019. "Stakeholders’ Interests and Perceptions of Bioeconomy Monitoring Using a Sustainable Development Goal Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-24, March.
    18. Vitória Toffolo Luiz & Rafael Araújo Nacimento & Vanessa Theodoro Rezende & Taynara Freitas Avelar de Almeida & Juliana Vieira Paz & Biagio Fernando Giannetti & Augusto Hauber Gameiro, 2023. "Sustainability Assessment of Intensification Levels of Brazilian Smallholder Integrated Dairy-Crop Production Systems: An Emergy and Economic-Based Decision Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-20, March.
    19. Stan Selbonne & Loïc Guindé & François Causeret & Pierre Chopin & Jorge Sierra & Régis Tournebize & Jean-Marc Blazy, 2023. "How to Measure the Performance of Farms with Regard to Climate-Smart Agriculture Goals? A Set of Indicators and Its Application in Guadeloupe," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-21, January.
    20. Clasen, Arno P. & Agostinho, Feni & Sulis, Federico & Almeida, Cecília M.V.B & Giannetti, Biagio F., 2024. "Unlocking the potential of municipal solid waste: Emergy accounting applied in a novel biorefinery," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 492(C).

    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:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:1:p:159-:d:1028854. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.