Synthèse d’activité à mi-parcours

AGROBIOSPHERE 2011

SPOP

Coordinators : Cécile Bessou, Alain Rival

Project duration: 03/2012-02/2016

Partners: 3 academic partners : Cirad – INRA – IRD 1 International Centre : Cifor 1 Private company : PT-SMART

Summary Context: The cultivation of oil palm has become emblematic of the trade-off between development and conservation that agricultural commodities have to face: matching an increasing global demand while preserving the capacity of land to provide ecosystems services. In particular, oil palm development in South-East Asia has been and is still mainly happening at the expense of natural forests. Local productions are tightly connected to more global socio-economic and environmental issues. Rationale: We, the scientific community, need to better assess, through the improvement of both knowledge and tools, the 3D impacts (social-economic-environmental) of oil palm cropping systems (focus here on plantations, not mills or other parts of commodity chain) in order to reinforce the decision making process towards sustainable palm oil production (here with the help of land use modeling at the territory scale and scenario testing) and preserve natural forests from further expansion of plantations at their expense. Background: What do we already know about sustainable palm oil (RSPO) and what is actually missing? There is a lack of both knowledge and appropriate toolkit to assess major 3D impacts, especially while considering the local specificity of cropping systems and their capacity to adapt to more global changes. The project is aimed at fulfilling part of this gap focusing on oil palm plantations, some selected indicators for the three dimensions of sustainability, and the landscape scale (in particular, we do not consider here any indirect land use change), mostly in Indonesia and partly in Cameroon. Questions to research: How to better assess the 3D impacts of oil palm, and make sure that new knowledge and toolkit will effectively be useful and finally adopted by end users? The objectives of the project are: i) to investigate the influence of global changes on the various oil palm cropping systems, ii) to identify the obstacles, opportunities, and uncertainties for the adaptation of these systems to global constraints, and iii) to elaborate strategies and tools designed to facilitate the transition towards sustainable oil palm cropping systems. Research strategy: In order to reach these objectives the SPOP Project will follow three main lines: 1) providing new scientific-based knowledge and tools in order to assess the 3D impacts of the oil palm cropping systems, allowing to confirm the sustainability of existing systems or to implement new sustainable systems; 2) involving stakeholders in the process by using participative methods all along the project such as multi-agent modeling, reflexives, or participatory prospective analysis; 3) identifying the obstacles and analyze whether they are related to some inherent incapacity of cropping systems to adapt or/and to some insufficient effort or success in making knowledge and tools accessible to the stakeholders. Expected outputs will include new knowledge and data on the 3D impacts of global constraints on oil palm plantations, innovative tools to assess these impacts and support decision making processes and recommendations for the transition of cropping systems towards sustainability.

Project goal and scope

With an annual production exceeding 50 million tons in 2010, palm oil is the first source of vegetable oil in the world, now far ahead of soybean. The expansion of oil palm cultivated areas has been outstanding during the past decades and it reaches nowadays 15 million ha in the inter-tropical region. This spectacular increase in production is driven by a very high demand in vegetable oil especially for food uses. Due to global population growth, the consumption of fat per capita has more than doubled between 1975 and 2009, growing from 11 to 24.7 kg/yr. The global oil palm demand is driven by countries such as China, India and Pakistan, which combine demographic growth with a notable improvement of living standards. Thus it is anticipated that production of palm oil will have to double before 2050 (Corley, 2009).

The tremendous growth of oil palm plantations was concomitant with severe damage to the

environment and especially great lost of natural forests, which was denounced by various NGOs early in the 90s. The uncontrolled expansion of large-scale oil palm plantations is still driving deforestation and peat oxidation especially in South East Asia, inducing important losses in biodiversity and negative effects on global climate change (Reinhard et al., 2007 ; Wicke et al., 2008 ; Germer and Sauerborn, 2008 ; Sheil et al., 2009). There are also controversies about the social consequences of oil palm expansion. However, oil palm cultivation is also driving economic growth and rural development in many poor tropical countries. The net environmental and social impacts of oil palm depend on where and how it is developed. Meeting global demands and expectations, including food, fuel other uses but also resource preservation and social development, is hence determined at the local level, the scale of the primary production systems. This challenge illustrates how local productions are tightly connected to more global socio-economic and environmental issues in the context of global changes, a complex of inter-imbricated constraints to be addressed by sustainable production systems.

Despite an ambitious attempt to define exhaustive guidelines for sustainable palm oil

production, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Principles & Criteria (RSPO P&Cs first edition in 2007, revision in 2013) essentially provide a shared framework towards sustainability. The main objectives of these criteria are to ensure that best-practice strategies are implemented and that impacts are monitored, but within this general harmonised frame no threshold values, control points or other quantitative parameters are provided. Little is known about the comparative environmental savings brought by the recommended best practices in several field conditions and no effective performances can be ensured through the sole compliance with the P&Cs. Hence decision makers still do not have all the information required to systematically avoid pitfalls or make all appropriate choices. The RSPO P&Cs need to be revisited and associated to complementary diagnosis steps in the light of the broad diversity of cropping systems and the constraints these systems have to face. We, as researchers, still have to refine the scientific basis of P&Cs on the one hand and to monitor and anticipate the social, environmental and agricultural impact of their strict application on the other hand. At the local scale, complementary knowledge and a more accurate impact assessment are necessary in order to analyse how the cropping systems are influenced by the global changes and to better ensure that recommended practices can lead to sustainable productions.

The backbone of the project consists in providing some scientific knowledge to contribute to this

analysis and ensure the sustainability framework of palm oil sector, while reinforcing existing initiatives for sustainable palm oil production, such as RSPO or ISPO, the Indonesian Governmental equivalent. Given the limited time frame, the SPOP project does not explore the whole range of the global constraints neither all impact categories covered by RSPO P&Cs. The SPOP project focuses on the oil palm plantations, i.e. the primary system productions upstream the commodity chain in order to deeper investigate the specificity of these diverse cropping systems and identify how they are influenced and may adapt to global changes. The SPOP project consists of three work packages (WP). The WP0 deals with coordination tasks (2 tasks). The WP1, “Characterization of the various oil

palm cropping systems: agricultural practices and 3D impacts, potential adaptation to global constraints”, consists of 5 tasks. It is dedicated to the characterization of the diversity of the oil palm cropping systems and their 3D assessment, i.e. their social, economic and environmental impacts. The WP2, “Land use planning and management options as scenarios for adaptation strategies”, consists of 3 tasks. It focuses on the spatial dynamics and co-dynamics of those production systems. The two work packages are complementary, as characterised systems in WP1 are to be used within WP2 to build up the scenarios. SPOP working fields encompass two provinces in Sumatra Island, Indonesia, for the analysis at the plantation level. In a further step toward characterizing the diversity of the systems and the influence of the national context, a comparison is being carried out between palm oil supply chain in Indonesia and Cameroon.

To fulfill SPOP objectives, we built up a multidisciplinary team involving agronomist, economist,

ecologist and sociologist. The SPOP transdisciplinary expertise makes it possible to assess both agro-ecological and socio-economic aspects. The latter include both downstream socio-economic indicators on the producers’ livelihoods and upstream socio-behaviour indicators that translate the way producers perceive global changes and the interferences with their production systems. The ultimate goal of the project is to provide decision support material for oil palm producers and policy makers. Improved and updated knowledge is not enough though and the transition between knowledge and decision-making is often critical. Therefore, we designed the SPOP project in the aim of providing models, scenarios and tools for decision making, while applying participatory methods to ensure the suitability of the tools and their adoption by the stakeholders.

Preliminary results

Characterisation of the various oil palm cropping systems and their 3D impacts

In 2012-2013, activities within WP1 involved all SPOP members, 2 Ph.D. students and 3 trainees (with missioned supervisors in the field). Discussions and field works first focused on the assessment grids. As anticipated in the project proposal, we decided to test the comprehensive WAW framework (World Agriculture Watch, FAO, 2012) in the field. This methodology was inspired by the Sustainable Rural Livelihood framework that makes it possible to analyse the links between the farm structure and the performances of the production system. Indeed, socio-economic as well as potential environmental impacts of agricultural productions depend pretty much on the production structures. With the first field surveys in 2013, the core of the field-applied WAW approach was first to capture the global rationale of the holdings and assess the place and role of oil palm production within the household economy – including farm and non-farm activities - and in terms of 3-dimensional impacts (3D-impacts), i.e. social, economic and environmental impacts.

SPOP project is focused on Cameroon and Indonesia where development schemes supported the

development of oil palm smallholdings in different ways. In Cameroon, oil palm plots were all planted by smallholders who fully manage them. In Indonesia, it’s the same for independent plots, who are fully managed by the smallholders, but different for plasma plots that may be acquired through different development schemes and that can be either semi-managed by smallholders (smallholders start managing the plots after the juvenile phase) or fully managed by the contracting industry. As development schemes induced much more diversity in Indonesia, we chose that country in order to get a greater variability in the smallholders’ production structures. More precisely, we selected the Riau and Jambi provinces in Sumatra. The area surveyed in Riau is characterised by a long palm oil history with a mixed development of oil palm plantations through private or public companies and supervised smallholders. On the other hand, the area surveyed in Jambi is characterised by a recent development of oil palm mostly in traditional villages.

Surveys were based on both oriented and comprehensive question sets. We focused in this first

field work campaign on the smallholders’ systems within the supply area of a palm oil company. In

total, 103 oil palm growers were interviewed. For each holding, one to two oil palm plots were included in the survey with contrasted levels of management (semi-managed and independent from recommendations of the company estate). As we aim to explore the management diversity between smallholdings, we decided to keep full managed plasma plots out of the plot survey because they are all managed equally and like the contracting industrial plantation1. Data were collected in Kampar District, Riau Province, and Bungo District, Jambi Province. The area surveyed in Riau is characterised by a long history of oil palm development through public and private companies and supervised smallholders. On the contrary, the area surveyed in Jambi is characterised by a more recent development of oil palm mostly in traditional villages. The first analysis of these data sets was carried out with the help of the Sphinx Software (Sphinx Plus2 v.5.1.0.7). Further statistical analyses are on going to complete this preliminary analysis.

In Riau, where oil palm plantations have been developed for more than one generation, we

aimed to identify potential differences in production and activity systems’ development and strategies that may explain differences in performances across the various holding types and cropping systems. Through field surveys, we identified a wide range of oil palm productive systems – ranging from 2 ha to 110 ha embedded in a diverse setting of activity systems. This heterogeneity at holding and households’ levels highlights the social rapid differentiation associated with the spread of income generation through oil palm production development. We used a set of structural indicators to analyse the production systems and their various evolutions in terms of the five capitals (natural, physical, financial, human and social) from the “livelihood” methodology FAO (2012). These evolutions were analysed in the light of potential strategic behaviours of the producers, which allowed us to define 5 types of structural patterns at the holding level. The performances of each holding type were then assessed along the classical dimensions of sustainable development (3D-impact indicators). While social and economic dimensions were estimated at household level, the environmental dimensions relied more on estimates at plot level. The social performances were estimated through a combination of several components including living standards, education (for the children) and health. Economic performance of the holding was based on an assessment of the total household income including both oil palm and other farm and non-farm activities. Environmental dimension was based on two main indicators in relation to the use of chemical fertiliser and herbicides.

In parallel, another approach to assess the diversity of palm oil production systems focused on

the agricultural practices associated with oil palm cropping systems within the production system. The objective of this approach was to define homogeneous groups of oil palm plots characterised by similar agricultural practices across varying production systems. A three-step statistical analysis using R software was carried out in order to identify the critical practices that may be correlated to the specific origin of the plots, i.e. independent or plasma, within the production systems.

The first step – Khi2 test (V0*Each agricultural practice) – showed that plot type is correlated to

most agricultural practices alone. These agricultural practices were correlated to one another and should be considered as combinations. The second step - Multiple Component Analysis (MCA) with 11 active variables – showed that the annual applied quantities of the fertilisers N,P,K best represented the diversity of the plot management. Finally, the third step - Hierarchical Ascending Classification (HAC) (4 first dimensions: 41,8% of total cumulative variance) – yielded 3 clusters of crossed management and plot types. These clusters only partly reflect the plasma-independent plots partition; plasma and independent plots are distributed in the 3 clusters with a dominancy of plasma plots in cluster 2 and a dominancy of independent plots in clusters 1 and 3. The diversity of agricultural practices may be greater among independent plots. However, the apparent homogeneity of plasma agricultural practices may be linked to the weak representation of plasma plots within the sample.

1 Further use of « Plasma » in this report refers to semi-managed plasma smallholders

Common oil palm plot classification between plasma and independent doesn’t seem to be the only driver of agricultural management, which is consistent with the first typology analysis based on strategic behaviours. Other drivers from different scales (e.g. the farm holding) may be stronger drivers and must be further investigated with a cross-analysis of the first proposed typology. Hence both typologies are being further field tested and improved. Their results will be then compared in order to get a third information layer and a robust assessment methodology. The consolidated types will be then assessed with the 3D-impact grid.

Perception of global changes by stakeholders of the palm oil sector

A cross-analysis of the perception of global changes by macro and micro actors of the palm oil supply chain was started. Macro actors represent here downstream actors such as retailers, NGOs or end-users covering various supply actors and interest groups dispersed or radiating at the international scale, whereas micro actors represent the upstream producers at the local production area scale. Macro actors are by definition connected to various activity or interest groups worldwide and therefore potentially more aware of global changes as defined by the international community (UN conferences, sustainability international certifications and standards such as RSPO etc.). They may also be less connected to the local scale, where recommendations, which might be their own, are to be implemented in the field. The aim of this study is to find out i) whether global changes and sustainability are perceived in similar ways by macro and micro actors in terms both of nature and content, uncertainty and given importance; ii) whether there is a mismatch or not between those perceptions and how it may influence the efficiency and effectiveness of sustainable standards and recommendations. The ultimate goal is to enlighten the establishment of recommendations for adaptation strategies towards sustainable systems by reconnecting concerns and control levers at both local and global scale.

The first field work campaign took place in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia, in 2013, with an

internship on visual sociology. Visual sociology is defined as the use of visual support such as videos or photographs to conduct social scientific research. The backbone of this approach is however more complex. As defined by Grady J. (1996), it may be decomposed in three inter-connected areas of investigation: i) the sole study of sight and vision may inform about the construction of social organization and meaning; ii) the study of the construction process of images and communication means may be relevant to understand and manage relationships in society; and iii) the more in-depth study of information techniques may also be used to empirically investigate social organization, cultural meaning, and psychological processes. During the field interview, the SPOP trainee used visual supports such as plantation pictures or environmental campaigns material to interact with the local populations.

The interview material has been collected and is being analysed based on the following four

hypotheses that were built-up during the first year of the project: • Hypothesis 1 : the relationship to one’s living place and its environment is different for

“trans-migrant” people or local people being here for several generations. The Sampling for the field work hence needed to include both indigenous and trans-migrant producers.

• Hypothesis 2: The concept of sustainability, that was exogenously defined by macro actors as consisting of three pillars, is locally intrinsically integrated, i.e. the three dimensions do not have a segregated essence, which makes it difficult in particular to consider the environment apart from its economic or social imbrications (e.g. nature conservation is weighted by local needs and can hardly be considered as a aim by itself or disconnected from the livelihood environment). The three bottom-line theory isolates the problems of the local actors who, in reality, have to face them all at the same time. We can hence assume that these diverging conceptions of the dimensions of sustainability may induce diverging perceptions of the global changes and challenges.

• Hypothesis 3: At the local scale, the social dimension is fundamentally related to solidarity within the community, whereas at the global scale (macro actors in international

authorities) it is more correlated to individuals in terms of civic rights and equities (children right, gender issues, no ethnic discriminations, …). Approaches and indicators may hence not be adapted nor complete.

• Hypothesis 4: Differentiation between local and global scales in defining and implementing strategies towards sustainability is also crucial in terms of temporal scale. Macro actors tend to target actions in a short timeframe for immediate results, while local populations plan their actions and strategies over a life time.

Global scenarios and dynamics of oil palm development

In 2012-2013, activities within WP2 involved all SPOP members, 1 Ph.D. student and 1 trainee (with missioned supervisors in the field). Large part of sustainable issues regarding palm oil arise with the development of new plantations. As the diversity of palm oil cropping systems is important, the debate on landscape design to deal with palm plantation development, conservation areas or other land uses must be further fed with specific elements on the spatial dynamics of the oil palm cropping systems. Especially the study of the spatial dynamics and co-dynamics of those production systems has to be deeply explored and formalised. In the research field of Land Change Science (Rindfuss et al., 2004), one of the main challenge is to couple bio-physical and socio-economical driving factors in the same land use dynamic assessment tool (Turner et al., 2007). Land use change dynamics modeling based on bio-physical or more broadly to topographic driving factors is often the result of spatialised data analysis (e.g. remote sensing), top-down analysis (Verburg et al., 2004). On another side, modeling land use change based on socio-economic driving forces is the result of on field survey, bottom-up analysis (Lorena & Lambin, 2009). The approach proposed in the SPOP project was to combine top-down and bottom-up approaches in order to embrace bio-physical as well as socio-economic driving forces. Once the land use change processes are understood and formalised in the study area, the goal is to build scenarios in order to assess the impacts on land use of palm oil cropping systems and adaptation scenarios. First field work hence started with the aim to first understand land use change processes in the study area and socio-economic driving factors. The analysis of these factors was closely related to that of cropping systems and holdings’ structures previously mentioned and will serve as basement to build up the simulation model. The top-down approach based on the use of remote sensing techniques to assess the spatial organisation of bio-physical factors may finally not be applicable within the frame of SPOP.

Scenarios can be defined as a scientific approach to characterise possible futures of a defined

system. Nevertheless, since scenario studies begun in the 1950’s, this research area has evolved and led notably to a broad diversity of development approaches. Even though many authors proposed typologies of scenarios and scenarios approaches, there is a no consensus to capture the diversity of scenarios (Van Notten et al., 2003). Two main behaviours toward scenarios may be identified in the scientific community: one where scenarios are considered as finalised entities and the other one where scenarios are considered as processes involving stakeholders. The latter implies specific methods to build up every component of the “scenario” object, and can be more efficient from an operational and decisional point of view (Hulme & Dessai, 2008). As a matter of fact, if stakeholders are part of construction process, scenarios are more likely to be accepted by taking into account stakeholders’ designs for their own system (Voinov & Bousquet, 2010). In the SPOP project, the scientific position chosen was to involve stakeholders in the scenario approach in order to ensure the appropriation of the results by the end users. Two types of workshop were designed. First, workshops on participatory prospective analysis (PPA) were organised in September 2013 in the Bungo district in Jambi Province. These workshops were held in two villages for four working days in each village and brought together various stakeholders from the palm oil sector. The questions raised during the workshops where the following: “What is the main issues regarding oil palm development in Bungo?; “What might be improved and how? “ What are the possible futures of oil palm development in Bungo district of the village? How will livelihoods of the people evolve? What will be the place of oil palm plantations, other crops and forests in the village territory?” After these two workshops, the head of each village – who participated in the workshops – came to the

district capital city, Muara Bungo, to present the conclusions of this work to representatives of the main public services of the district. For this presentations the head of villages were accompanied by one or two other villagers who participated in the workshops. An interesting discussion took place with direct dialogue between head of villages and the district public services. The first part of the report presents the history of palm oil development in Indonesia and Bungo, as well as the current situation: sector organisation, typology of households and socio-economic performances. Then the results of the PPA workshops are described and analysed. One of the main outputs from the workshop was the desire from local populations to get technical support from public services to improve their production systems; indeed they tend to be skeptical towards technical support provided by the private companies.

In parallel, a reflexive workshop was organized as a side-event of the ICOPE conference in

February 2014. During this workshop, gathering mostly stakeholders from the macro level, potential futures of the palm oil sector and plantation development in Indonesia were discussed along the macro, meso and micro declinations of socio-economic and environmental constraints within a global context of combined varying capacities to mitigate or adapt to climate change. Further work is still needed to complete these scenarios and to connect them with outputs from PPA workshops.

Summary of workshops and communications

Authors Title of the workshop Objective

Feintrenie L. et al. Participatory Prospective Analysis workshops : 4-day workshops in two villages in Bungo district, Jambi Province, September 2013

To investigate the future of oil palm according to local populations

Djama M. et al. Reflexives workshop : one afternoon in Bali, Indonesia, as side-event of the ICOPE conference 2014

To discuss potential futures of oil palm within the global context

Authors Title of the communication Type

Baudoin A. et al. Towards a multidimensional assessment grid of smallholders’ oil palm plantations: a preliminary proposal from SPOP Project

Oral presentation and paper in the proceedings, ICOPE 2014, Bali

Baudoin A. et al. The palm oil sector in Indonesia SPOP Report, 175 p.

Moulin M. et al. Oil palm dreams and disillusions: smallholders’ plantations in a context of poor access to agricultural inputs

Poster ICOPE 2014, Bali

Moulin M. et al. Understanding the drivers of land use changes: the case of oil palm managements in Sumatra (Indonesia)

Poster 2nd GLP meeting 2014, Berlin

Nkongho RN. et al. Strengths and weaknesses of the smallholder oil palm sector in Cameroon

Oil Crops & Lipids 21(2)2014

Perspectives and impacts

In the study site in Riau province, where oil palm cultivation tends to standardise the landscape, overwhelm the local economy and polarise the households’ activity systems, we could identify a significant heterogeneity at holding and households’ levels. The choice of the study area was consistent in order to explore the diversity of the systems while having a long-term historical retrospective to try to analyse its origin. We may then further assume that this diversity will increase when reaching the margins of the companies’ influences or in regions where the oil palm development is more recent. But this would need to be further investigated. This diversity of the production systems was the baseline assumption of the SPOP research project that aims to bring out this feature of the local production system in order to lay out a basis for an in-depth analysis linking structural characteristics and 3D performances. Our approach and tools were suitable to characterise the diversity of holdings and households’ activities and strategies. The questionnaire and survey guide were appropriate to identify the structural characteristics of the holdings and the activity system of the households. However, there is still room to reduce the sise and length of the questionnaire and to improve its ergonomics in order to gain efficiency in implementation. At plot level, the structure of the questionnaire was also adequate. In this survey, we chose to limit data collection to two plots in the case of mixed production systems (plasma and independent) and sometimes it was not possible to get information on both plots due to time constraints or the unavailability of information.

We have presented a typology that goes beyond the linear evolution of holding. We added an

evolutionary and strategic dimension which should have an impact on holdings’ performances. This declination emphasised the diversity of holdings’structures and production systems even though oil palm income seems to overweight all other income sources. We suggested five types of holdings, which need further confirmation while extending the sampling sise and survey area. To replicate our methodology and further describe each type, we suggested a set of structural indicators aiming at locating the holding within our typology and at better understanding its dynamics. We also proposed a set of performance indicators to assess the 3D-impacts of each holding type.

The time constraint for field work and the choice to cover the diversity of systems led us to base

our typology on a limited number of interviews and questionnaires. By spotlighting the diversity of situations and the more consolidated holdings, we certainly underestimate the bulk of real

Ndjogui T.E. et al. Historique du secteur palmier à huile au Cameroun CIFOR Occasional Paper 110. 102 p.

Nkongho RN. et al. The History of relationship between agro-industries and oil palm smallholders in Cameroon

Draft available 2014

Nkongho RN. et al. The Non-Industrial Palm Oil Sector in Cameroon CIFOR occasional paper (submitted)

Nkongho RN. et al. Less oil but more money! Artisanal palm oil milling in Cameroon. African Journal of Agricultural Research (2014 forthcoming)

Nkongho RN. et al. History of relationship between agro-industries and oil palm smallholders in Cameroon.

SPOP Report, 52 p.

4 SPOP trainees’ reports

smallholders below 4 ha for instance. Moreover, some missing data in the surveys prevented us from strengthening our analysis (in precision and statistical validation) and the suggested typology does require further validation through a wider set of holdings. Therefore we now need to increase the number of holdings in our sample and complete the data to strengthen the typology and characterise the trajectories. In order to be efficient and optimise the work on primary data, our sample would need to match with a statistical coverage of the area. This complementary work would enable better knowledge of the structural differentiation in oil palm production. We are also seeking for further sources of field data through collaboration with other scientific teams.

This differentiation process needs to be better understood to identify the set of constraints and

opportunities that orient smallholders towards such differentiated trajectories. More insight on the perceptions and projections of the smallholders regarding their practices, associated constraints, risks or opportunities also is crucial. To do so, qualitative analyses based on a comprehensive approach bringing into the picture life cycles, evolution of assets and subsequent evolutions of holding strategies are needed. This must be deepened on a limited number of “robust” trajectories. The collection of more accurate information at the plot level would necessitate a permanent survey mechanism on a limited number of holdings in order to document the practices within a given type of productive structure. This would allow for testing the robustness of the relation between the type of structure and the type of performances based on the relevant indicators identified here.

Data on planting material and yields are very sensitive; accurate data is hard to gather, whereas

yield and planting material are important factors explaining farm performances. There would be a need for assessing these parameters in a comprehensive manner at the level of a supply area, in order to serve as a reference to better interpret data collected through surveys within the frame of SPOP field work. This work can however not be carried out within the frame of SPOP, since it would require 1-year field work, which has not been planned in the initial budget. Further projects should include a specific study with intense field work survey to better estimate the exact yields of the diverse farmers within a supply area: it would include a monthly record of yields at the plot scale, a field survey of planting material used with field tests, and interviews of farm groups and cooperatives to cross checked measured yield components with other top-down approaches based on costs and payments.

Perspectives beyond the finalisation of the cropping system characterisation will be to upscale

the environmental performances from plot to holding or landscape levels. The methodological choice, facing the hazardous aggregation of impacts, will be to aggregate impacts along the supply chain using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The approach will consist in combining agro-ecological indicators such as the N-balance assessed at the plot level and gate-to-gate LCA. A Ph.D. project, partly financed by the ANR SPOP project will first deeper investigate the sensitivity and uncertainty linked with such a combination of semi-qualitative and quantitative assessments. Unfortunately, the start of this Ph.D. project was delayed and will not be finished when the SPOP project ends in February 2016.

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