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An increasing number of vineyards are converting to organic farming due to concerns about the environmental impacts of agriculture. How difficult this shift is depends on farms' biophysical and economic situations as well as on their specific dynamics. Methods to analyze, assess, and support transition strategies are needed. In this context, the hypothesis can be made that the efficiency-substitution-redesign approach, which is used for describing the level, intensity, and speed of changes made by vineyards, could be used to classify transition strategies. On-farm interviews and surveys were conducted at vineyards in conversion to organic farming in two French winegrowing regions: Languedoc and Bordeaux. The agronomic changes made to various grape production technical operations during the conversion period were described and assessed by using the efficiency-substitution-redesign approach. Potential economic consequences of conversion were measured by looking at farms' accounting records. Considering the high number of variables taken into account in the detailed analysis of each operation for the conversion to organic farming, the efficiency-substitution-redesign approach was successfully used to classify transition strategies according to the type of changes made. The results showed that change intensity varied between farms with no clear correlation between the type of changes and economic consequences. Farm trajectories were then correlated to the speed and intensity of changes with quantitative transition indicators. Here, a quantitative application of the efficiency-substitution-redesign approach was used for the first time to assess and classify organic farming conversion strategies according to a scale of change intensity and speed of changes. These results are essential to enhance understanding of what happens during conversion to organic farming and to better support winegrowers' trajectories.

Cet article présente le nouveau cadre conceptuel d’évaluation de la durabilité de l’exploitation agricole développé dans la méthode IDEA v4. Il combine une approche évaluative basée sur les objectifs assignés à une agriculture durable et une évaluation des propriétés des systèmes agricoles durables. Il s’ancre dans le champ de la durabilité forte, de la multifonctionnalité et prend en compte les enjeux globaux d’une agriculture durable. Ce cadre conceptuel a permis de construire 53 indicateurs permettant d’analyser la durabilité de l’exploitation agricole selon ces deux approches complémentaires. La première évalue la durabilité en organisant ces 53 indicateurs selon les 3 dimensions normatives du développement durable (agroécologique, socio-territoriale, économique), structurées en 13 composantes ; l’évaluation repose sur un système de notation basé sur 100 unités de durabilité pour chacune des 3 dimensions qui ne se compensent pas entre elles. La seconde évalue la durabilité en organisant les 53 indicateurs selon les 5 propriétés des systèmes agricoles durables (autonomie, robustesse, capacité productive et reproductive de biens et services, ancrage territorial et responsabilité globale) qui sont structurées de manière arborescente en 15 branches ; l’agrégation des indicateurs y suit une démarche qualitative et hiérarchique mobilisant l’outil DEXi. Le potentiel pédagogique du concept de propriétés des systèmes favorise une approche transdisciplinaire de l’exploitation agricole. À la suite de ses trois précédentes versions, IDEA v4 renouvelle son potentiel d’usage pour accompagner la transition agroécologique.

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The six countries of the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo), after nearly twenty years of “de-collectivization”, combine a modest size, a fragile economy and a still strongly present agriculture. But this situation remains of concern. At the crossroads of historical and political events in this area, agriculture has faced to strong developments as well on production structures as on its role in economy. Today, the very high proportion of small-scale farms, their insertion in the environment, their multifunctionality, could be an asset for the food security of these countries. Unfortunately, the disruption of agricultural industries, coupled with agricultural policies that are following the modernization scheme proposed by the European Union, seem announcing rather disastrous consequences which could make agriculture becoming an obstacle to sustainable development.

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