# Tracking-down inter-farm collaborations to promote crop diversity

A. Pépin; M. Mosset

INRAE UMR SAS
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# Context

Specialisation of farms vs. agroecology

* Specialisation of farms and territories

* Mixed farms in EU28 : 30% in 2005, 24% in 2016 (Eurostat)

* Mixed farms in Brittany : 12 % in 2020 (Eurostat)

* Crop-livestock integration and crop diversification are major levers for the development of agroecology

* Improves farming system resilience by e.g. limiting disease pressure, optimizing the use of nutrients and regulating the water cycle (Lin, 2011; Martin et al., 2016).

* A challenge for farmers

* Increased workload (Ryschawy et al., 2017)

* Labour organization and mental workload (Navarrete et al., 2015)

* Knowledge intensive (Toffolini et al., 2017)

* Specific machinery (Meynard et al., 2018)

* Inter-farm collaborations for crop-livestock integration and crop diversification at the inter-farm level ?

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# Context

## Inter-farm collaborations ?

* Inter-farm collaborations

* Specialized farms

* Sharing crops, fields or a common crop planning

* Poorly documented in the North-West of France

* Which type of farms ?

* What are they sharing ?

* With which organisation ?

* What are their interests ?

* What are the constraints ?

→ Tracking-down « innovations »

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# Context

* First stage of a broader project

* Co-designing inter-farm collaborations with a group of farmers next to Rennes

* Produce transferable knowledge to provide advice to farmers

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## Partners

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AGROBIO 35

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## Funded by

Carasso
Daniel & Nina
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# Method

## Tracking farmers' innovations (Salembier et al., 2021)

1. Defining a tracking project

Farms that cooperate with other farms in order to diversify or maintain a diversity of crops and/or livestock

2. Unearthing on farm innovations

Identify farms by snowball sampling : asking targeted stakeholders if they knew either farmers who were innovating or people who might know them

3. Getting to know innovations

Conducting individual interviews with 16 farmers (10 collaborations)

4. Analysing learnings from the innovations

Qualitative multi-theme coding (Ayache and Dumez, 2011)
Cross-sectional analysis

5. Generating agronomic content

Master student report
More to come

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# Results

## Four types of collaborations

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### Joint selling

Coordination between farmers to offer a complete range of products for direct selling

N=1

### Planned sales between 2 farms

A farmer produces a crop on his/her own land and sells it to his/her neighbour on a regular basis. The neighbour commits to buying the crop each year.

N=4

### Exchange of raw materials

The 2 (or more) farmers produce a crop on his/her own land for his/her neighbour on a regular basis. Financial compensation can occur in case of unbalanced value.

N=2

### Shared crop rotation

Plot exchange or plot sharing. Often formalised by an agreement as the operations are very intertwined and therefore require better guarantees.

N=3

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# Results

## Four types of collaborations

Complementarity

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Synergy

### Exchange of raw materials

The 2 (or more) farmers produce a crop on his/her own land for his/her neighbour on a regular basis. Financial compensation can occur in case of unbalanced value.

N=2

INRAO

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Farmer-baker
35 ha UAA
Needs 12 ha for
wheat : only 8 ha
available in a 4 year
rotation

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Grass

Straw-manure exchange

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Wheat

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Cow breeder
60 ha UAA
70 milking cows
Needs to grow
cereals between 2
cycles of pasture

Harvest the grass
Buys the grass

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* Oral agreement

* Which plot ?

* Price (same every year)

* Allow 1 to have enough wheat with a 4 year rotation + outlet for the grass

* Allow 2 to grow crops between 2 cycles of pasture + outlet for the wheat

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# Results

## Four types of collaborations

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### Shared crop rotation

Plot exchange or plot sharing. Often formalised by an agreement as the operations are very intertwined and therefore require better guarantees.

N=3

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Market gardener
3,5 ha

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Farmer-baker
70 ha

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Cow breeder
160 ha including 40 ha in the shared rotation

### Written agreement

* Management (date of harvest, fertilisation)

* Straw-manure exchange

* Condition of use of other farm's machinery

### 1 meeting per year

* Debrief

* Plan next year

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> Discussion

* Collaboration allows longer crop rotation

* Produce crops not directly needed

* Forage in farms without livestock

* Crops for human consumption in farms with livestock

* Control of weeds and diseases

* Fertilisation with legumes and manure

* Only organic cases

* No chemicals and synthetic fertilisers : need long rotations

* Possible intensification

* Fodder produced out of the farm → more livestock

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Discussion

* Helps setting-up young farmers

* Possible to set up on a small area

* Limited investment (land, machinery...)

* Focus on a few crops or activities

* Farmers without agricultural background : not the same attachment to land

* Independence

* Towards suppliers of inputs

* Towards agricultural contractors

* Towards industry : on-farm processing (bread, cheese, beer...) + local outlet

* Territorial diversification

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Discussion

* Social aspects

* Social relations with “colleagues”

* Require the same vision, a good communication, trust

* Not collective farms : each farmer make his/her own decisions

* Regulation

* Organic certification

* CAP subsidies

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Thank you !

antonin.pepin@inrae.fr