# How Assessment Methods Support The Design Of Pesticide Free Territories

Rosan de Lange, Aude Barbottin, Maude Quinio, Muriel Valantin-Morison, Aude Alaphilippe

► To cite this version:

Rosan de Lange, Aude Barbottin, Maude Quinio, Muriel Valantin-Morison, Aude Alaphilippe. How Assessment Methods Support The Design Of Pesticide Free Territories. 8. International Farming System Design Conference, Aug 2025, Palaiseau, France. hal-05242037

HAL Id: hal-05242037

https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05242037v1

Submitted on 5 Sep 2025

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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8th International Farming System Design Conference
Palaiseau – 25-29 August 2025

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Agricultural systems
by design

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# How Assessment Methods Support The Design Of Pesticide Free Territories

De Lange Rosan<fnref n="1" />*, Barbottin Aude<fnref n="2" />, Quinio Maude<fnref n="2" />, Prost Lorene<fnref n="2" />, Valantin Morison Muriel<fnref n="1" />, Alaphilippe Aude<fnref n="3" />

<footnote n="1">¹UMR Agronomie, France</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²UMR SADAPT, France</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³UERI Gotheron, France</footnote>
# Introduction

Be Creative aims to design pesticide-free territories with and for the actors

Study device : **9 case study territories** varying in size, social, pedoclimatic and agronomical context, and so work with different constraints

→ Each territory carries out an iterative **design process** toward zero pesticide

Be Creative has 3 Work Packages :

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**WP3** aims to assess performance, impact and services of design solutions in our territories

<table><tr><td>6 territories</td><td>2 experimental INRAE units</td><td>1 farmer network</td></tr></table>

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# Aim of the study and method

Assessment is not only a final step to evaluate a solution

→ an activity **embedded** within the design process (Perrin et al., 2023).

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DESIGN
PROCESS

According to Lairez and al. (2015) assessment is a means of supporting a process or approach by:

* describing or generating knowledge

* supporting decision-making

* allowing communication with stakeholders.

How, in our various case studies, does assessment support the design process ?

We analyzed:

1. the type of assessment **methods** mobilized;

2. at what **stage** the methods were mobilized within the design process;

3. the **follow-up** to the assessment activities.

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Design processes led by **local and academic case-study project leaders**

→ co-constructed in an **iterative way**

To **track the process** we interview the project leaders twice a year from start of the project (2021-...)

→ Build a Chronicle of Change (Chizallet et al, 2020) for each case study: ** timeline with 5 categories of activities of the design process** (Stempfle et Badke-Schaub 2002)

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# Method

Grid analysis framework to analyze the assessment activities

For each assessment activity we analyzed:

* The initial objective and question

* The components

* The actors involved...

→ to draw up an **overview** of the assessment activities.

Academic case-study project leaders were interviewed to validate and complete our analysis.

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# Results

## A diversity of methods

25 assessment-related activities in 7/9 case studies → 6 not identified as assessment

Objects assessed : production system to ecosystem service. Assessment scales : field to large group of parcels

3 classifications emerged from the analysis:

* Assessment type according to the approach/method mobilized

* Temporality according to the stage of the design process

* Follow-up activity to the assessment

3 assessment types were identified:

* observation assessment (OA)

* multi-criteria tools (MC)

* expert feedback (EF)

Method choice: objective, knowledge, skills and time available

<table><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Case-study</th><th colspan="3">Assessment type</th></tr><tr><th>OA</th><th>MC</th><th>EF</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>CS1</td><td></td><td>2</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>CS2</td><td></td><td>1</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>CS3</td><td>2</td><td>1</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>CS4</td><td></td><td>2</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>CS5*</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>CS6*</td><td>5</td><td>1</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>CS7</td><td>3</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>12</td><td>10</td><td>3</td></tr></tbody></table>

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# Results

At different stages of the design process:

**3 assessment stages in the design process - plan, process and product:**

- ex-ante: assessment of a theoretical innovation (8)

- in-itinere: assessment during implementation for adjustment (14)

- ex-post: assessment after implementation (3)

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# Results

## Follow-up: contribution of assessment types to the design process

Follow-up types (e.g. implementation of a designed innovation) helped characterize the contribution of assessment activities to the process.

**6 different types emerged**, 4/6 being some form of decision making (*) (Lairez et al. 2015).

<table><thead><tr><th>Assessment type<br>Follow-up activity</th><th>Expert<br>Feedback</th><th>Multi-Criteria<br>Tools</th><th>Observation<br>Assessment</th><th>Total</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Implementation*</td><td></td><td>2</td><td></td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>Adjustment*</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>7</td><td>11</td></tr><tr><td>Assessment*</td><td>1</td><td>1</td><td></td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>Communication</td><td></td><td>1</td><td></td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Exploring leads/diagnosis*</td><td></td><td>4</td><td></td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>Nothing at this time</td><td></td><td></td><td>5</td><td>5</td></tr></tbody></table>
# Results

## Various stages of the design and assessment process

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# Discussion and Perspectives

## Method types

Method choice dependent on resources + Experimental units carry out the most assessment (number and type)

-> **Skills available** for assessment ? Interdisciplinary, tools and field knowledge, animation skills... etc.
(Simon et al. 2022). This must be considered early in the design process

## Temporality

Intervenes at any point in the design process -> plays a role in every stage : plan, process and product
(Verschuren & Hartog 2005)

## Follow-up

Some OA not followed up with actions: mainly biodiversity observations involving complex processes ->
How to leverage these types of observations within the design process ?

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# Discussion and Perspectives

Assessment can support creativity, generate ideas, visualize solutions, support selection...

**Key role in design →** in our case studies, so far, **more formative than summative** (Verschuren & Hartog 2005) to support **decision making** (Lairez et al. 2015)

Role of evaluation in design: subject in its own right → **Formalizing** the assessment step could improve the design process.

## Perspectives

* **Object and scale →** What impact on the process? How is small scale assessment extrapolated to the territory? How to assess at territory scale?

* **Role of stakeholders →** What link between stakeholder involvement and implementation? Since making the assessment stages transparent and comprehensible to stakeholders improves the design process (Perrin et al. 2023)

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Références

Lairez, Juliette, Feschet, Pauline et al. (coord.). Agriculture et développement durable. Guide pour l'évaluation multicritère, Dijon/Versailles : Educagri éditions/Éditions Quæ, 2015.

Perrin, Aurélie, Gwenola Yannou-Le Bris, Frédérique Angevin, et Caroline Pénicaud. 2023. « Sustainability Assessment in Innovation Design Processes: Place, Role, and Conditions of Use in Agrifood Systems. A Review ». Agronomy for Sustainable Development 43 (1): 10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-022-00860-x.

Plénet, Daniel et Simon, Sylvaine. 2015. Une démarche de conception et d'évaluation de systèmes de culture pour des vergers plus durables. Sciences Eaux & Territoires. 2015/1 Numéro 16

Simon, Clerc, Jonville, Rechauchere, Messéan. 2022. Concevoir des systèmes techniques agroécologiques : quel métier pour les agronomes, entre diagnostic, évaluation/conception et accompagnement ? Revue AE&S 12-2

Verschuren, P., Hartog, R. Evaluation in Design-Oriented Research. Qual Quant 39, 733-762 (2005).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-005-3150-6

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