L’adaptation de l’agriculture au changement et à la variabilité climatiques au Québec : un processus de diffusion des innovations

Other than climatic variables, non-climatic factors should be considered in the analysis of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change and variability. This shift in paradigm places the human agent at the centre of the process of adaptation to climate change, particularly with regard to the role of social networks in the transmission of new ideas. In agriculture, the use of innovations is advocated as a coping strategy. The development and adoption of these coping strategies can be considered innovative processes that depend as much on the social and cultural context of a country, its dynamics, and the strategy itself. Also, the ownership and dissemination of an innovation are taking place from a decision-making across the farm, which in turn requires an understanding of the multiple forces and external and internal factors in operation and the multiple objectives of the operator. Thus, understanding of the farmer’s decision- making environment at the farm level is vital because it is a prerequisite for the success and sustainability of any agricultural adaptation policy. However, in a sector like agriculture, it is recognized that social networks for example, play a crucial role in adaptation in particular, through the diffusion of innovations. Therefore, the objective of this research is to analyze how farmers take ownership and design strategies to adapt to climate change and variability from the perspective of diffusion of innovations. This study was conducted in Montérégie- West, a region located in the southwestern part of Quebec and which is known to be one of its most important agricultural regions, due to favorable climatic and soil factors. Fifty-two interviews were conducted with various stakeholders in agriculture at local as well as regional levels. The grounded theory approach is used to analyze and explore the contours of farmers’s decision-making environment regarding the use of innovation as a coping strategy. The results show that innovations are not implicitly designed to cope with climate change and variability even if climate change affects their emergence. The decision to innovate is largely determined by economic considerations. Moreover, the study also shows a weakness of social capital within farmers groups related to the overriding influence of the private sector, which are the main supplier of materials and agricultural inputs. The influence of the private sector has resulted in the dominance of economic considerations over environmental concerns and the temptation of short-term profit from the farmers, which raises the issue of sustainability of interventions in adaptation of Quebec’s agriculture. The study also highlights the complementarity between informal social networks and formal structures of support for adaptation, as well as the need to build partnerships. In addition, the study places the adaptation of Quebec’s agriculture from the perspective of private adaptation whose success is based on a "socialization" of innovations, which should lead to the emergence of formal and informal institutional processes. The establishment of such partnerships can greatly help improve the adaptation process at the local level.

Keyphrases: adaptation, agriculture, maladaptation, Grounded theory, Climate change, climate variability, adaptation, agriculture, diffusion of innovations, partnership, social capital, social networks, Grounded theory, maladaptation