Typology of organic management styles in a cash-crop region using a multi-criteria method

Summary

Organic farming, as a model of sustainable agriculture, requires key agro-ecological principles to be taken into account. In the implementation of these principles, significant differences exist across farmers, geographical areas and production systems. How is this heterogeneity expressed on farms? This paper studied the different organic management styles, defined as varying patterns of cropping systems. Based on a farm survey carried out with 17 organic cash-crop farmers in the grain-producing Île-de-France region, we developed a farm-scale multi-criteria method to assess the diversity of cropping systems in organic farms. We measured the ratio between preventive and corrective techniques, and thus evaluated the coherence of organic cropping systems with the key agronomic principles of organic agriculture. We identified three types of organic management styles representing the wide diversity of strategies related to varying patterns of cropping systems. The three types relate to various structural determinants of farms, agri-food systems and agronomic conditions. We go beyond the conventionalization debate on organic farming to show that farmers mix and match different techniques and that their cropping systems are predominantly hybrid forms which are not necessarily long lasting. Finally, our multi-criteria method provides a tool for diagnosing regional organic farming practices and agronomic problems.