Can water quality problems motivate conventional farmers to convert to organic farming?

Summary

Recently, the conservation of water resources has become a major issue because of the increasing problems of water pollutions by agriculture. In this context, organic farming (OF) is seen by some institutions as a promising solution for responding to this problem because of its regulation that prohibits the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Recent policies in France have focussed on promoting OF development, especially in water catchments’ areas contaminated by pesticides. Our hypothesis is that the existence of a water quality problem locally can be a motivation for conventional farmers to convert to OF. This research is based on 65 farmers’ interviews (mainly conventional farmers and a few farmers who recently converted to OF) that were carried out in 4 different water catchment areas encountering pollution problems. A qualitative analysis of the interviews was carried out to identify the different conceptions that farmers have of their occupation and their vision of professional excellence. Six different farmer profiles have been identified depending on farmer’s perception of the water question and farmers’ declared willingness to convert to OF. Our results show that the existence of a local problem of water quality can lead farmers to convert to organic farming. Furthermore, actions set to develop OF to respond the water quality problem can reach farmers who were not part of the classical pool of “potential converters”.