Dealing with complexity to reduce pesticides: the case of vineyard cropping systems

authors

• Merot Anne
• Etchepare Teo
• Fouillet Esther
• Martinez Audrey

keywords

• Transition
• Grapevine
• Labour
• Trajectory
• System
• Hierarchy
• Transition grapevine labour trajectory system hierarchy Purpose
• Transition
• Hierarchy Purpose

document type

abstract

Pesticide reduction is a key issue to improve sustainability. Progressive changes in winegrowers' practices are observed to engage deeper and deeper in this transition. However, one difficulty often expressed by winegrowers in interviews is the increasing complexity of management and organisation. This work aims at analysing the evolution of technical and organisational complexity during the pesticide reduction process in vineyard systems. In this work, we assessed the evolution of the technical and organisational complexity of the vineyard cropping system by calculating 3 structural and functional indicators. Interviews were performed in 6 French wine-growing regions. The analysis showed that the three indicators evolved with pesticide reduction. Our results revealed that as pesticide use decreased, functional complexity increased while structural complexity decreased.

more information