Which digital uses for which ecologisation of agriculture? The example of cereal farms in South-West France

The development of digital technology is being promoted as a solution to cope with the economic and environmental challenges in agriculture (Lajoie-O'Malley et al., 2020). Digital technologies would support farmers in better allocating resources such as seeds, fertilisers, chemicals and in accessing knowledge about innovative farming practices. However, the effects of digital technology on the ecologisation of agricultural practices are the subject of scientific and political controversies (Lioutas and Charatsari, 2020). While there is consensus on the need to green agriculture, the form of agriculture to be developed is a matter of debate. Some propose to optimise and to improve efficiency of the actual production systems and other to redesign the production systems on the basis of biodiversity services, that is called agroecology (Duru et al., 2015). The controversies about digital technologies thus address the capacity of digital technologies to integrate and influence the diverse forms of agricultural ecologisation (Klerkx and Rose, 2020). However, little is actually known about farmers use of these technologies. Moreover, most of studies are still framed by a linear vision of adoption of digital solutions by farmers (between pioneers, laggards and followers) and overlook the diversity of technological trajectories in the sector. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to show the diversity of digital use patterns and to explain how these patterns connect to different forms of agricultural ecologisation. We applied a mixed qualitative-quantitative method to 98 interviews with cereal farmers in South-West France in order to study their use of digital technology as well as the economic characteristics of their farms and their agronomic practices. A statistical classification was used to construct three digital use patterns for two types of digital technologies: digital technologies for production (DTP) (guidance, variable rate technology, etc.) and digital technologies to get technical information (DTI) (social networks, websites, etc.). The individual, structural and agronomic characteristics of farms in each pattern were described. A qualitative analysis complemented this statistical analysis, by informing causal links that could explain highlighted statistical relations between the variables. We show that a diversity of uses patterns coexists. No interrelation between the uses of digital technologies for production (DTP) and digital technologies for information (DTI) is noted. The important use of DTP is rather linked to optimisation and efficiency strategies. Those strategies are associated with economic variables such as expansion, outsourcing, wage labour and specialisation. It reports on our first proposition: the important use of DTP is associated with weak forms of ecologisation integrated in the industrialisation of agriculture (Bronson, 2019; Clapp and Ruder, 2020). However, some farms that use widely DTP are also invested in more radical forms of ecologisation such as organic farming, while being in an industrialisation trajectory. DTP appear to allow the substitution of conventional inputs by organic ones or by organic mechanic tasks. Thus, DTP could accelerate the ‘conventionalisation' of organic farming (Darnhofer et al., 2010). Strategies of redesigning practices are more associated with low or intermediate uses of DTP. On the other side, the non-use of DTI is linked to more conventional practices. The use of DTI seems to inform farmers about ecologisation practices, to fill the information gap of ecologisation knowledge in farmers' traditional knowledge network. DTI complement rather than substitute face-to-face knowledge exchanges. It informs our second proposition: the use of DTI can be associated with stronger ecologisation forms of agriculture. We highlight that the diversity of technological trajectories is also related to farmers' innovation system and value chain. Actually, advisers, buyers, suppliers of other intermediaries can have a major role on the digitalisation of farms. This work allows us to go beyond a linear vision of innovation adoption, by showing how digital technologies can be included in technological trajectories and reinforce them. This invites us not to consider a uniform technology deployment policy, but rather the support of a diversity of solutions adapted to a diversity of agricultural models.