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Stockless organic farming: strengths and weaknesses evidenced by a multicriteria sustainability assessment model

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Abstract

Agronomists need methodologies to assess the sustainability of crop** systems. Few models such as MASC have been recently developed for evaluation. The effective use of those models is still a challenge, notably for low-input systems. Here a more specific model entitled MASC-OF was developed and applied to study stockless organic crop** systems. The MASC-OF model is original because it is based on agricultural advisers’ needs and expertises. Two groups of advisers supported by agronomic scientists were involved in a nine-step methodology to progress from preliminary meetings to data analysis. The methodology allowed advisers to design a model including their own views on what is a sustainable organic crop** system. Soil fertility and weed and pest control were integrated as a new branch in the original MASC model. We also developed evaluation criteria for each basic attribute, defining aggregation rules and weighting attributes. Tested case studies were based on 44 real crop** systems identified on 19 farms in the Midi-Pyrenees region of France and on 23 crop** system types developed by the advisers from the Centre, Ile-de-France, Pays de Loire, Poitou-Charentes and Rhône-Alpes regions of France. Our results show that a high score of economic sustainability is the most difficult to achieve. This finding is explained by low productivity of cereal crops and high variability of market prices for organic grain. Further, agronomic viability is also difficult to ensure, as a consequence of poor soil-fertility management practices. The ability to achieve social acceptability for the producer, including workload and health risk, is high. By contrast, acceptability for the society has a medium score due to reduced productivity and contribution to local employment. Environmental sustainability is the easiest dimension to achieve, despite nitrogen-loss risks in some situations and high water and energy consumption in irrigated systems. Overall our findings show that the potential for the development of more sustainable organic crop** systems in stockless farms is high.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the French Midi-Pyrenees region and INRA via the PSDR 3 “CITODAB” project and by the French Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Fishing and Rural Affairs (MAAPRAT) via the CASDAR “RotAB” project. We warmly thank INRA and AgroParisTech for authorisation to use and modify the MASC model. We thank Michael Corson for correcting the manuscript. We are very grateful to the editorial team and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on improving the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRA, UMR 1248 AGIR, BP 52627, 31326, Castanet Tolosan Cedex, France

    Bruno Colomb & Jacques-Eric Bergez

  2. INP Toulouse, UMR 1248 AGIR, BP 52627, 31326, Castanet Tolosan Cedex, France

    Bruno Colomb & Jacques-Eric Bergez

  3. AGROCAMPUS OUEST, Sol Agro et Hydrosystème Spatialisation, 35000, Rennes, France

    Matthieu Carof

  4. INRA, UMR1069, Sol Agro et Hydrosystème Spatialisation, 35000, Rennes, France

    Matthieu Carof

  5. Université Européenne de Bretagne, 5 Boulevard Laënnec, 35000, Rennes, France

    Matthieu Carof

  6. Groupe ESA, LEVA, BP 30748, 49007, Angers Cedex 01, France

    Anne Aveline

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  1. Bruno Colomb
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  2. Matthieu Carof
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  4. Jacques-Eric Bergez
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Correspondence to Bruno Colomb.

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Colomb, B., Carof, M., Aveline, A. et al. Stockless organic farming: strengths and weaknesses evidenced by a multicriteria sustainability assessment model. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 33, 593–608 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-012-0126-5

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