# Value chains middlemen's roles in the market gardeners' crop planning: which impact on farmers adaptive capacity?

Axel Graner, Claire Lesur-Dumoulin, Marie-Hélène Jeuffroy, Ronan Le Velly, Laure Hossard

► To cite this version:

Axel Graner, Claire Lesur-Dumoulin, Marie-Hélène Jeuffroy, Ronan Le Velly, Laure Hossard. Value chains middlemen's roles in the market gardeners' crop planning: which impact on farmers adaptive capacity?. 15. IFSA Conference 2024 - Systemic Change For Sustainable Future, International Farming Systems Association - Europe Group; Council for Agricultural Research and Economics; University of Palermo, Territorial Pole Trapani, Jun 2024, Trapani, Italy. hal-04647701

HAL Id: hal-04647701

https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04647701v1

Submitted on 15 Jul 2024

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

tetrae

# Value chains middlemen's roles in the market gardeners' crop planning: which impact on farmers adaptive capacity?

## IFSA Congress Trapani

Axel GRANER, Claire LESUR-DUMOULIN, Marie-Hélène

JEUFFROY, Ronan LE VELLY and Laure HOSSARD

axel.graner@inrae.fr

INRAE

IFSA 01/07/2024

Axel GRANER

UE Maraîchage

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>

ideas
INITIATIVE FOR DESIGN
IN AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /></figure>

La Région
Occitanie
Pyrénées - Méditerranée

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /></figure>

RÉPUBLIQUE
FRANÇAISE

Liberté
Égalité
Fraternité

INRAE
<figure><img src="image_7.png" /></figure>

# Context

Fresh vegetable systems

## Features

* Fresh products (unprocessed)

* Small surfaces (<50ha)

* Manual

* Not in rotation with arable crops

<figure><img src="image_8.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /></figure>

## Specificity

* Perishable and seasonal (de Raymond et al., 2013)

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /></figure>

* Tight production timing

* Large number of potential crops

<figure><img src="image_11.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_12.png" /></figure>

# Context

Fresh vegetable long value chain

## Middlemen

* value chain actors who buy production directly to farmers, and are involved in crop planning (Tordjman et al., 2005)

* “convert a production dispersed and fluctuating into a concentrated and steady supply” (Nozières-Petit 2014, p.125)

<figure><img src="image_13.png" /></figure>

## Planning coordinated between farmers and middlemen

<figure><img src="image_14.png" /></figure>

Non exhaustive
(Adapted from Levet et Hutin 2019)
<figure><img src="image_15.png" /></figure>

# Research question

Farmers planning and selling practices

<figure><img src="image_16.png" /></figure>

(Navarrete & Le Bail, 2007) :
Agronomic, Strategic and
organisational factors

<figure><img src="image_17.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_18.png" /></figure>

# Research question

Farmers adaptive capacity

<figure><img src="image_19.png" /></figure>

## Adaptive capacity

“capacity to anticipate perturbation [...]; to design and implement strategies so as not to be harmed by those perturbations; and to maintain system function, structure, identity, and feedback”
(Van der Lee et al., 2022, p.3).

<figure><img src="image_20.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_21.png" /></figure>

# Research question

<figure><img src="image_22.png" /></figure>

To what extent farmers adapt their crop planning to face a context of increasing disturbances ?

<figure><img src="image_23.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_24.png" /></figure>

# Material and Methods

## Method

* Diagnosis of uses (Cerf et al., 2012)

* Understanding the diversity of ways to address an issue in a concrete situation of use

* Diagnosis of crop planning

* How farmers and middlemen plan production

* Which disturbances are faced

* How farmers adapt their crop planning to disturbances

* Case study: Roussillon Plain, France

* One of main french vegetable production basin

* Historically oriented on long value chain

Artichoke 2018

<figure><img src="image_25.png" /></figure>

(Avelin, 2020)

<figure><img src="image_26.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_27.png" /></figure>

# Material and Methods

## Semi-structured interviews

## Snowball sampling method (Parker et al., 2019)

* Diversity of situations

* Symmetric viewpoints of farmers and middlemen

* 18 farmers, 6 middlemen and 1 advisors*

## Analysis

* Themes inductively identified

* Answers compared and linked to farmers/middlemen features

<table><thead><tr><th>Type of actor</th><th>Organic/ conventional</th><th>Size</th><th>Number of vegetable crops</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="3">Farmers</td><td>Organic : 9</td><td>&lt;5 ha : 8</td><td>&le;3 crops : 5</td></tr><tr><td>Conventional : 5</td><td>5-9ha : 4</td><td>3-9 crops : 8</td></tr><tr><td>Mixed : 4</td><td>10-56 ha : 6</td><td>&ge; 10 crops : 5</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">Middlemen</td><td>Organic : 3</td><td>5 farmers : 2</td><td>&le;5 crops : 2</td></tr><tr><td>Conventional : 1</td><td>5-15 farmers : 2</td><td>6-10 crops : 2</td></tr><tr><td>Mixed : 2</td><td>30-40 farmers : 2</td><td>&ge; 10 crops : 2</td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_28.png" /></figure>

<footnote>* Advisors paid by middlemen to work with farmers for crop planning and monitoring</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_29.png" /></figure>

# Coordinated planning procedure

## 2 campaigns

* «Spring-summer and Autumn-winter, as in fashion» (M1)

## Example: Autumn-winter campaign

<figure><img src="image_30.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_31.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_32.png" /></figure>

## Adaptive capacity

<table><thead><tr><th rowspan="2"></th><th colspan="3">Negociations</th></tr><tr><th>Crops</th><th>Period</th><th>Volume</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th>Farmers' constraints and objectives</th><td>Equipment<br>Other crops<br>Profitability<br>Know-how</td><td>Seasonality<br>Labor peak<br>Price/risk</td><td>Labor<br>Land + management units<br>Gross margin</td></tr><tr><th>Middlemen's expectations</th><td>List of potential crops<br>mainly decided by<br>middlemen</td><td>Long and continuous<br>supply</td><td>&gt; Bulk threshold<br>&lt; Commercial capacity</td></tr><tr><th>Farmers' adaptive capacity</th><td>Propose a new crop, if<br>validated by the middleman<br>Find another outlet</td><td>Adjust harvest date<br>Hire seasonal workers</td><td>Compensate between crops<br>Hire seasonal workers</td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_33.png" /></figure>

Divergences between farmers' constraints and objectives and middlemen's expectations may limit farmers' adaptive capacity
<figure><img src="image_34.png" /></figure>

# Coordinated planning procedure

## 2 campaigns

* «Spring-summer and Autumn-winter, as in fashion» (M1)

## Example: Autumn-winter campaign

<figure><img src="image_35.png" /></figure>

Other adaptations: If not anticipated, implemented on year N+1

Delay harvest or store (limited by perishability)

Accept lower price

Sell to another middleman

Not harvesting

<figure><img src="image_36.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_37.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_38.png" /></figure>

# Coordinated planning procedure

## 2 campaigns

* «Spring-summer and Autumn-winter, as in fashion» (M1)

## Example: Autumn-winter campaign

<figure><img src="image_39.png" /></figure>

No contract : reciprocal commitment

“We have a moral duty of supply, and they have a moral duty of outlet and price” (F5)

<figure><img src="image_40.png" /></figure>

How farmers adapt selling to overproduction?

<figure><img src="image_41.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_42.png" /></figure>

## Outlet organization

* 3 types of agreements with middlemen

* 4 Planned outlet combination (farmers marketing system)

<table><thead><tr><td>Agreements</td><td>Characteristics</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1st circle</td><td>Planned, reciprocal prioritization</td></tr><tr><td>2nd circle</td><td>Planned, not prioritized</td></tr><tr><td>3rd circle</td><td>Not planned</td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_43.png" /></figure>

3rd circle : dynamic, hard to identify
<figure><img src="image_44.png" /></figure>

# Outlet organization

* 3 types of agreements

<table><thead><tr><td>Agreements</td><td>Characteristics</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1st circle</td><td>Planned, reciprocal prioritization</td></tr><tr><td>2nd circle</td><td>Planned, not prioritized</td></tr><tr><td>3rd circle</td><td>Not planned</td></tr></tbody></table>

If the period where it is stuck is too long, I'm glad to commit with [M1], I tell them [...] I'll bring you 500kg everyday next week, and they say OK, so they stop taking to other [suppliers] who did not commit [with them] (F4)

As I didn't used to serve them, [...] I had to enter step by step, one pallet after the other. (F2)

Middleman B

Commercial disturbance

farmer

7 farmers

3 farmers

Middleman A

Middleman B

They can have a market completely stuck. And in that case, if you managed to have two customers, one is getting a bit better than the other. And you can pass some [of your production] (F18)

5 farmers

Middleman

[the volume of] a retailer it's 200kg. So if you have 60 tons of artichokes on your hands, they won't sell it (F7)

3 farmers

Short value chains

Middleman

Short value chains

<figure><img src="image_45.png" /></figure>

Agreement with middlemen influence the way farmers face overproduction
<figure><img src="image_46.png" /></figure>

# Practical implications

* Farmers' adaptive capacity depends on:

* Constraints (e.g. farm equipment)

* Objectives (e.g. strategy for marketing system)

* Coordination with middlemen (e.g. coordinated planning)

* Farm typology to better understand differences of adaptive capacity

* Transform agreements between farmers and middlemen?

* Joint risk-sharing (Scholten & Schilder, 2015)

<figure><img src="image_47.png" /></figure>
# Theoretical implications

* Collective adaptive capacity?

* E.g. at supply basin scale (Le Bail & Le Gal, 2011)

* Timing of adaptation

* Temporal adaptation dynamic

* Broader analysis of resilience

* Including robustness and transformability (Meuwissen et al., 2019)

* Combining structural and social approaches (Darnhofer et al., 2016)

* Focus on other practices than planning

* E.g. crop management

<figure><img src="image_48.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_49.png" /></figure>

References

Avelin, C. (2020). *Les chiffres-clé de la filière Fruits & Légumes frais et transformés—2018*. France AgriMer.

Cerf, M., Jeuffroy, M.-H., Prost, L., & Meynard, J.-M. (2012). Participatory design of agricultural decision support tools : Taking account of the use situations. *Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 32*(4), 4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-012-0091-z

Darnhofer, I., Lamine, C., Strauss, A., & Navarrete, M. (2016). The resilience of family farms : Towards a relational approach. *Journal of Rural Studies, 44*, 111-122.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.01.013

de Raymond, A. B., Bonnaud, L., & Plessz, M. (2013). *Introduction : Les fruits et légumes dans tous leurs états. La variabilité, la périssabilité et la saisonnalité au cœur des pratiques sociales*.

Le Bail, M. M., & Le Gal, P.-Y. P.-Y. (2011). Analyse et conception de systèmes de production végétale à l’échelle des bassins d’approvisionnement agro-alimentaires. *Agronomie, Environnement & Sociétés, 1*(2), 75-86.

Levet, A.-L., & Hutin, C. (2019). *Le diagramme de la distribution des fruits et légumes en 2018 / Marketing channels of the fresh fruit and vegetable sector in 2018*.

Navarrete, M., & Le Bail, M. (2007). SALADPLAN : A model of the decision-making process in lettuce and endive cropping. *Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 27*(3), 209-221. https://doi.org/10.1051/agro:2007009

Nozières-Petit, M.-O. (2014). *La commercialisation des produits, source de flexibilité pour les éleveurs?*

Parker, C., Scott, S., & Geddes, A. (2019). Snowball Sampling. SAGE Research Methods Foundations. http://methods.sagepub.com/foundations/snowball-sampling

Scholten, K., & Schilder, S. (2015). The role of collaboration in supply chain resilience. *Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 20*(4), 471-484.
https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-11-2014-0386

Tordjman, S., Navarrete, M., & Papy, F. (2005). Les formes de coordination technique entre une structure de première mise en marché et ses fournisseurs : Le cas de la salade en Roussillon. *Cahiers Agricultures, 14*(5), 5.

Van der Lee, J., Kangogo, D., Gülzari, Ş. Ö., Dentoni, D., Oosting, S., Bijman, J., & Klerkx, L. (2022). Theoretical positions and approaches to resilience assessment in farming systems. A review. *Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 42*(2), 27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-022-00755-x
> Thank you for your attention !

Questions

<figure><img src="image_50.png" /></figure>