Validating a Whole Farm Modelling with Stakeholders: Evidence from a West African Case

Abstract

<p>Strategic and tactical decision support tools can assist farmers to make farm management decisions. The challenge facing researchers is to construct decision support tools that lead to the successful adoption of the strategies selected. This article describes and assesses the use of a whole-farm model in West African savannah regions. Farmers and advisors were involved in the choice and design of models, the definition and analysis of scenarios, the design of alternative strategies, and the validation of models. The validation process included a short and mid-term analysis of the use and usefulness of the model for farmers. During the validation process, farmers demonstrated that they were able to define and characterize iterative scenarios permitting the performance of their farm to be improved. They also had a good understanding of the outputs of the model, even several months after they had used the model. They declared having changed some technical or management practices and having acquiried calculation and management skills. This type of process offers an alternative to conventional advisory methods based on advisor expertise.</p

La co-conception en partenariat de systèmes agricoles innovants

“…Agric. 2016, 25, 15001 changements (Andrieu et al, 2012). À partir de ces éléments, le CA sélectionnait une liste restreinte d'options réalisables parmi la liste des options possibles.…”

“…L'objectif de l'article est de présenter la CPSAI et de l'illustrer par une étude de cas concernant la gestion de la fumure organique dans des exploitations familiales de polyculture-élevage. Nous nous appuierons sur les résultats de dix années de travaux au Burkina Faso au cours desquels les différentes composantes de la CPSAI ont été testées : modalités d'organisation et d'engagement des acteurs (Koutou et Vall, 2010) ; prise en compte des savoirs locaux (Blanchard et al, 2013 ;Vall et Diallo, 2009) ; expérimentation en partenariat chez l'agriculteur (Blanchard et al, 2014 ;Coulibaly et al, 2012) ; introduction de la modélisation dans la conception (Andrieu et al, 2012). Nous aborderons, en discussion, les forces et les limites de la démarche.…”

Trajectories of agricultural change in southern Mali

“…Considering farmers' knowledge and their 'expert capacity' is indeed a promising way for designing and assessing new systems (Doré et al, 2011). Based on participatory modelling with farmers of Burkina Faso, Andrieu et al (2012) stressed the ability of farmers to design alternative farm activities and make use of modelling outputs for their own activity planning. However, this study also revealed the will of farmers to test different technologies in their field (on-farm trials) in addition to the simulation exercise.…”

“…However, most existing studies applied only one DEED cycle, and there is little insight into how methods and solutions can be adapted dynamically in iterative cycles using scientific results and farmers' appraisals (a useful exception is (Dogliotti et al, 2014). Furthermore, in the African smallholder context, modelling outputs have seldom been coupled to real onfarm testing, although farmers were usually willing to test the different re-design elements (urea treatment of straw, compost pits) in their farms (Andrieu et al, 2012).…”

Risks and opportunities from more productive and resilient cropping system strategies in the Central and Southern Rift Valley of Ethiopia

“…Systems modelling are used in a variety of applications such as assessing the productivity and sustainability of cropping systems (Moeller et al 2014). Farming system models could be useful in (i) better representing of the complexity in farms, processes and their interactions (ii) enabling ex-ante exploration and evaluation of innovative and potentially applicable improved technologies in a variable system, (iii) giving advisory services to provide better alternative systems to traditional ones (Wafula 1995;Le Gal et al 2010;Le Gal et al 2011;Andrieu et al 2012) The use of crop models in assisting farmers' decision support system started and applied long ago in the developed world. However, in Africa more specifically to Ethiopia, use of cropping systems modelling in research and decision-making is at a very infant stage.…”