ORGANIC FARMING IS IT A SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE ? DEVELOPMENT ISSUES FOR SUSTAINABLE ORGANIC FARMING IN MIDI-PYRENEES REGION

Summary

By its strong development experienced last fifteen years, organic farming has gain both institutional and professional recognitions. It is well out of its traditional marginal status and production of niche, and to become a serious and promising way of agricultural development in line with the expectations of society. But questions about the sustainability of this mode of production are still raised. The aim of this paper is to analyze the recent dynamics of organic farms, in Midi- Pyrenees region, in order to identify the main patterns of evolution of these farms and to identify priority issues of development of these farms in sustainability perspective. The methodological approach, based on systemic thinking, combines a quantitative method applied to all organic farms in the Midi-Pyrenees region, and another more qualitative and focused on specific topics on a small sample of organic farms. Results show a diversity of organic farms due to the nature of their production system and farm size. Tree trajectories of farms have been identified and analyzed. These trajectories highlight the importance of changes operated bay farmers and the main drivers of change. They depend on the level of intensification of farms before the conversion. Development issues mainly concern the economic and social dimensions of organic farming. Discussion of trajectories of farms gives some insights on the evolution of organic farming last years.