Natural regulations and agricultural practices in organic vegetable production

Summary

Through the conventionalization thesis, many authors question organic farming (OF) dynamics. A possible alternative option would be an ecologization of OF, albeit without compromising productivity. This turn to an ecologization could be more marked in intensive systems, namely for vegetable farming systems under shelters. Fertility maintenance and crop protection enhancing natural biological activity seem to be a tangible option for such systems. However it may be difficult in some systems to answer these goals. In this scope, a survey was conducted in 29 vegetable farms in the south of France to understand the relationships between farmer s' practices and the integration of natural regulations (NR) in their systems. It showed an important diversity of agricultural practices. A cleavage, under what can be defined as a conventionalised OF and a canonical OF could be shown. Concerning the integration of NR processes in practice by the farmers, it appeared a predominance of farmers not seeking to promote NR in the choice of their practices. The analysis of independence between practices and farmers' perception of their own system with the integration of NR (χ²) was made: it shows a not significant association (p = 0,6). With this study, we argue that the clusters related to the perception and the integration of NR do not match groups of practices, either canonical or conventionalizing. However, all practices developed by farmers to promote NR were not informed. Finally it seems important to analyze farmers' practices with the monitoring of pest populations and beneficial insects to understand the links they may have.