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National audience; The rise of digitalisation is fueling a dynamics of reconfiguration of food value chains. This article explores two rising challenges: Logistics and traceability. These issues are crucial for food value chains because of the very specific characteristics of food products, such as perishability, shelf life constraints, quality variability, sanitary risks, market uncertainty, and the increasing distance between producer and consumer due to the markets’ globalization.

A região do Planalto Santareno, constituída por áreas dos municípios de Santarém, Belterra e Mojuí dos Campos, estado do Pará, Brasil, tem emergido como caso emblemático da relação de conflito entre agronegócio e agricultura familiar. Neste artigo, apresentamos as formas de interação entre estes dois modelos produtivos, a partir dos resultados de Zoneamento Participativo da Agricultura Familiar no Planalto Santareno, realizado junto a atores locais como parte de um esforço de co-construção de um Observatório das Dinâmicas Socioambientais na Amazônia. Os resultados mostram que diante de uma de uma lógica relativamente homogênea de expansão do agronegócio no planalto santareno a agricultura familiar se configura e interage com o agronegócio de diversas formas nesse território. Argumentamos que essa diversidade da agricultura familiar, caracterizada por zonas distintas, reflete trajetórias locais que variam de acordo com uma série de fatores operantes de forma contextual, como histórico de ocupação, atributos físicos da paisagem, acesso a mercados, infraestrutura, organização social, proximidade com os centros urbanos, entre outros. Levando em conta essa diversidade propomos reflexões a respeito da relação entre os diferentes modelos de produção abordados, apontando possíveis estratégias de fortalecimento da agricultura familiar. La région du plateau de Santarem, comprenant une partie des municipalités de Santarém, Belterra et Mojuí dos Campos, dans l'État de Pará, au Brésil, est devenue un cas emblématique du conflit entre l'agrobusiness et l'agriculture familiale. Dans cet article, nous présentons les formes d'interaction entre ces deux modèles productifs, basées sur les résultats d'un zonage participatif de l'agriculture familiale sur le plateau de Santarem, mené avec des acteurs locaux dans le cadre d'un processus de co-construction d'un Observatoire des Dynamique entre les Sociétés et leurs Environnements en Amazonie. Les résultats montrent que face à une logique relativement homogène d'expansion de l'agrobusiness sur le plateau de Santarem, l'agriculture familiale se configure et interagit avec l'agrobusiness de diverses manières sur ce territoire. Nous soutenons que cette diversité de l'agriculture familiale, caractérisée par des zones distinctes, reflète des trajectoires locales qui varient en fonction d'une série de facteurs opérant de manière contextuelle, tels que l'histoire de l'occupation, les attributs physiques du paysage, l'accès aux marchés, les infrastructures, l'organisation sociale, la proximité des centres urbains, entre autres. En tenant compte de cette diversité, nous proposons des réflexions sur la relation entre les différents modèles de production abordés, en proposant différentes stratégies possibles pour renforcer l'agriculture familiale. The Planalto Santareno region includes areas of the municipalities of Santarém, Belterra and Mojuí dos Campos, state of Pará, Brazil, and has emerged as an emblematic case of the conflict between agribusiness and family farming. In this article, we present the forms of interaction between these two production models, based on the results of a Participatory Zoning of Family Farming in the Santareno Plateau, carried out with local actors as part of an effort to co-build an Observatory of Social and Environmental Dynamics in the Amazon. The results show that albeit a relatively homogeneous logic of agribusiness expansion in the Planalto Santareno, family farming configures itself and interacts with agribusiness in various ways in this territory. We argue that this diversity of family farming, characterized by distinct zones, reflects local trajectories that vary according to a series of contextually operating factors, such as occupation history, physical landscape attributes, market access, infrastructure, social organization, proximity with urban centers, among others. Taking this diversity into account, we propose reflections on the relationship between the different production models addressed, pointing out possible strategies for strengthening family farming.

International audience; Since the 1990s, the scientific literature has shown how the technical model of intensification of livestock production is ill adapted to the characteristics of semi-arid climates and the pastoral systems operating in them. While this led to changes in the rhetoric of pastoral development, there have been no significant shifts in its conceptual foundations and working methods. This article analyses the forms of this persistence, its effects and its causes in the Valley of the Senegal River through a study of the introduction of a social business dairy project into the pastoral area surrounding the city of Richard Toll. The industrial dairy producers and the pastoralists mutually use each other for their own ends, thereby reinforcing the discrepancy between their objectives and the logic of their systems. The model of intensification is persistent because it plays a political role in constructing alliances between actors from agribusiness, and because choices about land use and resource access are depoliticised and repeatedly made in their favour. The article underlines the urgency of re-politicising and rethinking the logic behind pastoral development and the challenges it faces, and of deconstructing the rhetoric of reconciling profit with social development which serves mainly to reinforce the role that private businesses play in shaping public action.

Until the 1990s the açai was a product basically of local consumption in the states or the Brazilian Amazon, being even known as "food of the poor". Since then, following the expansion of its market, the exploitation or this fruit has undergone numerous transformations. Nowadays. besides being nationally known, it also has its demand expanded in the international markets, being considered now as a superfood. Such increase in demand has consequently influenced an increase in consumer prices and in most cases in the remuneration of extractivists, originally the exclusive suppliers of the fruit. The increase in supply has been due to the multiplication and diversification or actors in the chain, as well as the diversification of management and production practices (native acai trees densification, increase or monoculture or consortium plantations), depending on the economic context of the producing region, proximity to the industry and time in the activity of the primary suppliers. These changes can also bring vulnerability to more traditional forms and with smaller scale of production. Considering the trajectory or other extractive products that had their demands increased and, in order to meet them, had to identify substitutes, or to change the type or production system, this paper discusses, from recent data, if the main form of açai offer in the future will still remain through extraction or through cultivation systems. The paper also discusses what forms of market regulation and maintenance of traditional practices could guarantee the permanence of diversified and more sustainable systems.

Southeast Asia mosaics of agriculture and tropical forest landscapes have been heavily shaped by the progression of industrial plantations, from colonial times to now. In Indonesia and in Malaysia, the history of corporations undertaking these activities is indissociably from the land cover change, when “clearing the forest and expanding the agricultural frontier” was a colonial policy. For example in most instances, forests where replaced by industrial gambier plantations, then rubber plantations, and finally oil palm plantations, but direct conversions of forests into industrial plantations continue to happen until today. Controversies about deforestation and oil palm sustainability emerged in this context. Most of the land use changes have been made by the biggest of these corporations, which became corporate giants and diversified their activities to almost all sectors of the economy, from automobile to banking and telecoms. In Indonesia like in Malaysia, most of the development of industrial palm oil plantations is under the control of a fistful of giant corporations.Most of today’s proposed solutions to curb deforestation by oil palm are market tools such as palm oil trade bans or regulations and palm oil certifications, that are supposed to influence the economic decisions of private actors that are developing oil palm. However oil palm corporations are so diversified and embedded into the national economies, with many other stakes at play than deforestation, that many other factors could influence their corporate decision making, and outweigh the market tools that have been used up to day to try to influence their economic decisions. Works dating from Porter et all suggest that financial factors such as the shape of the network of ownership shares may play more on the corporate decisions than the market itself, while other works suggest that the nature of the financial ownership (government-owned versus privately-owned) is the essential driver of the corporate decision. This work is a pioneering attempt to understand the main structural drivers of corporate decision making of major oil palm plantation corporations. Using network analysis methods, it quantifyed and analysed the corporate structures of the main players among the oil palm plantation companies in Malaysia. The eight major Malaysian corporations were studied, consisting of 4,331 companies’ shareholding data, covering ten levels of shareholding. The corporations are Sime Darby, Boustead, IJM Plantations, Kulim, IOI Corp, KLK, Genting Plantations, and Jaya Tiasa. Network metrics described the financial topologies of the corporations, and did confront their ownership nature such as government-linked companies (GLCs) and family-owned businesses (FOBs) with measurable patterns controlling decision making processes such as structural control and decisions load. Contrary to the expectation, we found that the measurable decision making was not influenced by the ownership nature (whether the corporations is government linked or is privately owned), but was extremely influenced by the financial structure of the corporations, that is their topology such as the number of the companies within the corporation, its more or less hierarchical structure, and the overall size of the financial “pyramid” of the corporation. We also found that the measurable decisions load and structural control seem to predict an intrinsic structural flexibility of the corporations.The implications of these findings could help to rethink the political governance of deforestation and also opens a brand-new field of research for the description and analysis of the deep financial structures that govern the behaviour of corporations. First, this tells us that maybe, understanding and addressing the financial forces that shape the actions of plantations corporations would be more efficient for oil palm and forest sustainability, than antagonising countries and regions through trade bans. Second, we have now a method that allows us to assess and to rank the companies according to their deep characteristics: we can identify the most resilient corporations and prioritize them in order to develop long term sustainable practices.; Les mosaïques des paysages agricoles et forestiers tropicaux d'Asie du Sud-Est ont été fortement façonnées par l’essor des plantations industrielles, de l'époque coloniale à nos jours. En Indonésie et en Malaisie, l'histoire des grandes entreprises de plantation est indissociablement liée au changement de l’utilisation des sols, puisque «défricher la forêt et étendre la frontière agricole» était une politique coloniale. A l’origine et dans la plupart des cas, les forêts ont d’abord été remplacées par des plantations industrielles de gambier, puis se sont succédées des plantations d'hévéas et enfin des plantations de palmiers à huile, mais des conversions directes de forêts en plantations industrielles se poursuivent jusqu'à nos jours. Les controverses sur la déforestation et la durabilité du palmier à huile ont émergé dans ce contexte. La plupart des changements d'affectation des sols ont été effectués par les plus grandes de ces entreprises, qui sont très tôt devenues des conglomérats géants et ont diversifié leurs activités dans presque tous les secteurs de l'économie, de l'automobile à la finance et aux télécommunications, etc. En Indonésie comme en Malaisie, l'essentiel du développement des plantations industrielles d'huile de palme est sous le contrôle d'une poignée de ces conglomérats géants.La plupart des solutions proposées aujourd'hui pour freiner la déforestation par le palmier à huile sont des outils de marché tels que les interdictions et restrictions d’importation, ainsi que les certifications de l'huile de palme, qui sont censés influencer les décisions économiques des acteurs privés qui développent le palmier à huile. Cependant, les corporations de production d'huile de palme sont si diversifiées et si ancrées dans les économies nationales, avec de nombreux autres enjeux que la déforestation, que de nombreux autres facteurs pourraient influencer leurs décisions d'entreprise et l'emporter sur les outils du marché qui ont été utilisés jusqu'à présent pour tenter d'influencer leurs décisions économiques. Des travaux datant de Porter et al. suggèrent que des facteurs financiers tels que la forme du réseau des particippations financières peuvent jouer davantage sur les décisions de l'entreprise que le marché lui-même, tandis que d'autres travaux suggèrent que la nature de la propriété ultime des conglomérats (État / privé) - est le moteur essentiel de la décision d’entreprise.Ce travail est une tentative pionnière de comprendre les principaux moteurs structurels de la prise de décision des grandes sociétés de plantations de palmiers à huile. À l'aide de méthodes d'analyse de réseau, il a quantifié et analysé les structures d'entreprise des principaux acteurs parmi les conglomérats de plantations de palmiers à huile en Malaisie. Les huit principaux conglomérats malaisiens ont été étudiés, comprenant 4 331 sociétés listées, couvrant dix niveaux d’actionnariat. Les sociétés sont Sime Darby, Boustead, IJM Plantations, Kulim, IOI Corp, KLK, Genting Plantations et Jaya Tiasa. Les mesures du réseau décrivent les topologies financières des sociétés et confrontent leur nature de propriété, telles que les conglomérats liés au gouvernement (GLC) et les conglomérats familiaux (FOB), avec des formes mesurables du processus de prise de décision tels que le contrôle structurel et le poids structurel de la prise de decision.Contrairement à ce qui était attendu, nous avons constaté que la prise de décision mesurable n'était pas influencée par la nature de la propriété (que les conglomérats soient liés au gouvernement ou soient privés), mais était extrêmement influencée par la structure financière des conglomérats, c'est-à-dire des éléments topologiques, tels que le nombre d'entreprises au sein du conglomérat, sa structure plus ou moins hiérarchique et la taille globale de la «pyramide» financière du conglomérat. Nous avons également constaté que le poids structurel de la prise de décision et le contrôle structurel semblent prédire une flexibilité structurelle intrinsèque des sociétés.Les implications de ces résultats pourraient aider à repenser la gouvernance politique de la déforestation et ouvriront également un tout nouveau domaine de recherche pour la description et l'analyse des structures financières profondes qui régissent le comportement des entreprises. Premièrement, cela nous dit que, peut-être, comprendre et gérer les forces financières qui façonnent les actions des sociétés de plantations serait plus efficace pour la durabilité du palmier à huile et des forêts, que de se livrer à des bras de fer commerciaux avec les pays et les régions par le biais d'interdictions commerciales. Deuxièmement, nous avons maintenant une méthode qui nous permet d'évaluer et de classer les entreprises en fonction de leurs caractéristiques profondes: nous pouvons identifier les entreprises les plus résilientes et les hiérarchiser afin de développer des pratiques durables à long terme.

International audience; L’agroécologie latino-américaine propose de transformer les systèmes agroalimentaires conventionnels. Elle est portée par des mouvements sociaux qui ont su constituer des coalitions conduisant à sa prise en compte par les politiques publiques. Les instruments de ces politiques sont variés et s’insèrent souvent dans des programmes qui appuient également l’agriculture biologique et l’agriculture durable. Or ces deux types d’agriculture, tout en proposant des pratiques plus écologiques, ne remettent pas en cause les fondements du système agroalimentaire conventionnel. La mise en œuvre d’instruments en faveur de l’agroécologie dépend donc des rapports de force instaurés dans chaque pays. Ce Perspective analyse ces politiques et leur influence sur le développement de l’agroécologie dans huit pays : Argentine, Brésil, Chili, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexique, Nicaragua, Salvador. Ces politiques restent fragiles face aux soutiens massifs à l’agriculture conventionnelle. Leur défi est donc de convaincre plus largement agriculteurs, consommateurs et décideurs autour des questions de santé publique et de sécurité alimentaire.

International audience; Latin American agroecology proposes a transformation of conventional agri-food systems. It is driven by social movements that have succeeded in forming coalitions that have promoted its integration into public policies. These policies involve a range of instruments that are often embedded in programmes that also support organic agriculture and sustainable agriculture. However, while these two types of agriculture propose more ecological practices, they do not question the basis of the conventional agri-food system. The implementation of instruments to support agroecology therefore depends on the power relations established within each country. This Perspective analyses these policies and their influence on the development of agroecology in eight countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, and Nicaragua. These policies remain fragile, while support for large-scale conventional agriculture is still predominant. Their challenge is therefore to convince more broadly farmers, consumers and policymakers about the importance of issues such as public health and food security.; La agroecología latinoamericana pretende transformar los sistemas agroalimentarios convencionales. Los movimientos sociales, que han logrado formar coaliciones para incidir en las políticas públicas, son quienes impulsan dicha agroecología. Los instrumentos de estas políticas varían y a menudo se aplican en programas que también apoyan la agricultura orgánica y la agricultura sostenible. Estos dos tipos de agricultura, aunque proponen prácticas más ecológicas, no cuestionan las bases del sistema agroalimentario convencional. La implementación de instrumentos agroecológicos depende, por la tanto, de las relaciones de poder establecidas en cada país. Este Perspective analiza estas políticas y su influencia en el desarrollo de la agroecología en ocho países: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, México, Nicaragua y El Salvador. Dichas políticas siguen siendo frágiles frente al apoyo masivo a la agricultura convencional. Por lo tanto, el desafío de estas políticas es convencer de manera más amplia a los agricultores, consumidores y responsables sobre los temas de salud pública y seguridad alimentaria.

Researches on sectoral systems of innovation have typically been focused on industrial sector and the framework, so far, has not been mobilized to analyze climate change adaptation in agriculture. This article, therefore, explores the roles of systems of innovation in driving options to adapt to climate change, which claims sectoral innovation performance depends on the performance of institutions and actors' interaction. The research is based on two case studies, i.e., coffee and dairy sectors that are different in terms of actors involved, and institutional setup. The results finds, in the coffee, actors system is highly centralized and the innovation system is dominantly on technology development. In contrary, many actors make-up the dairy sector and the innovation system is dominantly on institutional building. The capacity to innovate, therefore, depends on institutional element in addition to its technology development and the dairy sector in Kenya could be an example for the coffee.

This chapter traces the genealogy of the concepts of value chain, supply chain, and their French equivalent filiere, and of the analyses based on this concept. It aims at an improved understanding of their scope and limitations in view of the challenges confronting sustainable development. Initially conceived to help formulate and evaluate industrial policies in the North, and subsequently development policies in the South, the concept of filiere encompasses a set of agents within an economic system with structural relationships that link the supply and demand of intermediate and final goods, and that have the power to influence and structure the economy concerned. The filiere was thus defined as a set of actors providing specific technical and economic functions in the process of producing and processing a good, from raw material to final product. This concept can be used to analyze the dynamics of integrating agriculture in agrifood and agro-industrial systems, measure the creation and distribution of wealth in these systems, and to undertake activities to support the development of technical and organizational innovations. In order to take the growing role of firms in the globalization of trade into account, a different approach, in terms of global value chains, conceptualizes relationships between actors by focusing on forms of governance and modalities of coordination through power relations and definition of standards. These two conceptual frameworks emphasize different aspects: structuring of productive systems in one, actor strategies in the other. However, they both participate in and embrace a logic of specialization and economic efficiency, in which issues of environmental and social sustainability often find little space. Life cycle assessment provides tools and methods to compensate for this lacuna, especially at the environmental level. However, an integrated analytical framework that takes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development into account in a complementary manner remains to be developed.

Since the 1980s, liberalization policies have profoundly altered the economic and institutional contexts in which agricultural producers operate. As a consequence, some of the older forms of collective action, dating from a period when their autonomy and room for manoeuvre were restricted because of State interventions and political ideologies, have been called into question. And yet, liberalization has brought with it a period in which collective action is all the more necessary in order to meet the challenges of a more unpredictable and competitive economic environment. To the traditional issues of economies of scale, bargaining power within value chains, and reduction of transaction costs can now be added those of ensuring sustainable development at the various levels of the agri-chain. Collective action is thus marked by a variety of empirical forms and initiatives of actors that fall more or less in line with the policies that support them. Economic and social inclusion remains a strategic focus to be achieved through participatory inclusion mechanisms, innovation platforms, and mechanisms for cooperation and joint decision making between actors on the basis of information sharing. New mechanisms in which collective action plays a key role are now required in order to respond to environmental and health issues and to meet the new attributes of quality that the consumer now demands. The relative ineffectiveness of collective action in the agrifood sectors in countries of the South is due to the inadequate institutional framework and the weak rule of law, which limit the capacity of organized producers to enforce rules internal to their organization and also those regulating their relationships with other actors of the value chains.

Agri-chains alter the trajectories of territorial development. Approaches focused on sustainable territorial development insist that local actors should have control over development and be allowed to orient it. It is a matter of understanding how local communities organize themselves or mobilize existing organizations to develop a collective project that can resolve the contradictions between the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of development. Three cases studied in Vietnam are presented here. They illustrate the significance of the local presence of traders and agro-industries, more so than that of the appropriation by farmer communities themselves of the issues of the development of these agri-chains. In this process, alliances between companies, farmers, and local authorities play a crucial role in the emergence of innovations. The challenge is for the local territorial actors, with the support of incumbent territorial organizations and State services, to participate collectively in the governance of agri-chains to solve the problems caused by the rapid growth of private firms.

This chapter serves as an introduction to the book and therefore depicts the main features of the two main concepts that this book endeavours to link, i.e. agri-chain transformations and sustainable development. It first discusses the origins of the concepts of Filière, supply chain and value chain, which the term agri-chain used in this book encompasses, their rationale and the evolution of the associated development approaches in Southern countries. It then examines the emergence, enrichment and dissemination of the concept and agenda of sustainable development in the political and economic world; and it discusses its implications and manifestations in agriculture. The chapter concludes with presenting the different parts of the book, which reflect the different facets of the links between agri-chains and sustainable development: the agri-chains as vectors of development, as spaces of innovation, as objects of evaluation, and as arenas of regulation. This book proposes to address these issues of sustainable development, from the perspective of tropical agri-chains in their wider sense (agriculture, livestock farming, forestry).

This book links tropical agri-chain dynamics – with which CIRAD and AFD have been involved for decades – to that of sustainable development. Increased environmental and social concerns urge agri-chain actors and development practitioners to design innovations, and public and private actors to invent regulations in connection with agri-chains to improve sustainability.With a view to contributing towards implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this book examines the different roles of agri-chains: as vectors of development, as spaces of innovation, as objects of evaluation, and as arenas of regulation. It builds upon the findings and experiences of CIRAD and its researchers together with their Southern partners, and of AFD and its officers.Linking agricultural production with the other economic sectors, agri-chains are key spaces where local and global challenges to sustainability meet and where local and global actors experiment interlinked or common solutions. (Resume d'auteur)

This thesis includes four parts to characterize Buffalo milk and veal chains at different chain levels, the objectives of the first part were to identify the diversity of different chains and more deeply to determine main actors along the milk value chains in three villages to understand how these chains work. Also, milk analysis was applied to study the effect of location on milk composition, milk urea nitrogen (MUN) and somatic cell count (SCC). Field visits and interview are used to collect data. Milk samples were collected from farmers through 2013/14. Results indicated that there were a short chain and a long chain. Short chain achieved higher profit for farmers and reasonable price for consumers compared to long chain. While long chain provide s a lot of jobs. MUN, SCC and milk composition could be used as diagnostic tools for different regions to identify the most priority services and extension needs at village level. The aim of the 2nd part was to suggest a methodology to characterize the diversity of dairy farming systems in Egypt to understand the traditional dairy sector. Data were collected from 65 farmers in three villages through three consecutive seasons. Based on multiple factorial and cluster analyses, six farmer s' group were identified. Milk production was a major activity in very small land farms, the sustainability of this sector facing the lack of technical support and lack of pricing system for milk and feedstuffs, more governmental and NGOs projects needed to supply farmers with high quality forage seeds, high producing animals and veterinary services. So, considering the diversity of farming systems, one agricultural policy will not fit all farmers' categories taking into account the region and the season. The objective of the 3rd part was to apply a SWOT analysis on a traditional milk chain, particularly buffalo skimmed milk chain around greater Cairo, which considered as one of the main dairy markets in Egypt. Main stakeholders of the chain were farmers, milk collection points, milk collection center, and dairy processing units. SWOT analysis allowed highlighting the major role of social network to explain the flexibility and adaptation of this sector to the major constraints in linked with international competitiveness and national constraints, mainly on land access. These elements could help decision makers and developers to prioritize sustainable development activities in link with agriculture global agenda. The aim of fourth part was to characterize the veal supply chain using survey analysis for different actors along the chain and to understand the preference of some meat consumers to veal meat through comparing meat quality parameters of buffalo meat categories in Egyptian market including meat quality analysis of veal, fattening males and culled females. Survey analysis results indicated that 65 % of Egyptian farmers sold veal as early as possible. About 61 % of these farmers sold their animals for economic reasons, 14 % for technical reasons and 25 % for both reasons. Fat content and cholesterol levels were lower in veal meat compared with fattening calves or culled females; the same trend was observed for shear force value s and cooking loss percentage. These results explained why the veal meat is regularly consumed by elders, sick peoples and employees with limited physic al activities, veal showed high tenderness and more attractive color, in contrast veal contained lower fat and cholesterol levels.

The need for technological transition and the context of the privatization of public research funding both challenge the evolution of methods to assess the impact of research in the agricultural and food sectors. We analyze this evolution through a literature review and an examination of a range of case studies on research completed in developing countries. In the first part, the results stemming from the former analysis question the controversies raised by quantitative approaches. In view of these controversies, we then examine the methodological innovations taking place in a qualitative approach. A survey of case studies ultimately helps to characterize the strategic resources that research generates with a view to improving its impact on innovation and development.

This article examines how research on the agriculture and agrifood systems mobilizes the concept of Innovation System (IS). A literature review on the IS provides an analytical framework for determining its theoretical frame of reference, its area of application and its uses. Based on this framework, a bibliometric analysis of international journals on innovation and agriculture reveals the existence of four knowledge communities, each of which addresses a specific angle of how the IS concept is applied to deal with the specific dimensions of innovation in the agricultural / agrifood sector. The current challenge is to promote exchanges between these communities, particularly between the one that applies an evolutionary approach and the epistemic community, which seeks to build its own concepts originating from the farming system approach and rural sociology.JEL Codes: O31, O39, Q10, Q16

International audience; To move forward a greater development in the Mediterranean, the adoption of the Post-2015 Global Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals constitutes an important step towards sustainability strategies in the region. This is in a context where the future of the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation must be redefined, in agreement with the new regional priorities. For these reasons, the Watch Letter n°34 proposes a high-level file about these strategic issues, aiming to bring a Mediterranean look on these Sustainable Development Goals and to provide a forward-looking reading guide to better prepare multilateral and multi-institutional cooperation in the region.

With a total area of 3 509 600 km2 and a population of over 80 340 000 people, the eight WAEMU countries (the West Africa Economic and Monetary Union) have many products to offer the international market. These products can be classified into three categories: fishery products, agricultural products, and agro-industrial products resulting from the processing in the first two categories. Despite the real independence of these categories, they share a common thread: efficient quality management. The crux of the matter is efficient quality management which denotes both effective and efficient management of the products. While all the theories of efficiency acknowledge a border between effectiveness and efficiency and highlight the complementarity of the two concepts, it is nonetheless interesting to note that the Russian language combines the two concepts into a single word: “effectivnost”. The efficiency of a quality infrastructure is determined by both its effectiveness and its efficiency since a quality product is one that meets the standards in place, has a number of inherent characteristics that fulfil stated requirements, and can be sold within budget limits set by the consumer. In other words, quality must be managed at a restricted cost so that it is not a source of increased production costs. The formal ratification of the SOAMET (West African Secretariat of Metrology), the NORMCERQ (Regional Body of Standardization, Certification and Quality Promotion) and the SOAC (Regional Body of Accreditation) by the eight WAEMU countries through the signing of Regulation No. 01/2005/CM/UEMOA (Scheme for the Harmonization of the Activities of Accreditation, Certification, Standardization and Metrology in the WAEMU) is a very positive step. Nevertheless, both the successful implementation of this regulation and the quality of work that will derive from these organizations depend on the quality of the human factor, i.e. the competence of the people involved. The CAFMET is in a position to help solve what amounts to an equation with several unknowns. Indeed, the CAFMET has an internationally recognized expertise that continues to demonstrate its value to international metrology and standardization authorities.

Chapter 9; International audience; In the tradition of the French school of agri-business and rural economy, the objective of this chapter is to analyse the challenges and opportunities of the citrus industry in two Maghreb countries: Tunisia and Morocco. This chapter complements Chap. 7 on global value chain analysis, which stressed consumer value as the most important parameter in value chain analyses. The citrus market chains are also associated with a group of innovation chains that contribute to both the technology and competition dynamics in the agricultural or industrial sector. In Tunisia we place emphasis on the analysis of innovation and issues related to biotic stresses. In Morocco we discuss the Green Morocco Plan to discuss the ongoing changes and major reforms to be implemented, with particular attention to the players and their strategies. We conclude on the similarities and differences in these two countries. In both cases, these countries are seeking comparative advantages enabling them to maintain their market shares: higher yields, development of labels, logistics improvement and better organization of the sector.

The Niger Office (NO) was created in 1932 and is one of the major irrigated areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Its irrigated lands are primarily intended for rice growing since cotton cultivation was abandoned in 1971.With the generalization of intensive rice growing and expansion of the irrigated areas, paddy production doubled between 1999 and 2012 (650,000 tonnes), which greatly increased rice processing requirements.This article analyses the development of rice processing units, then identifies prospects and opportunities for the stakeholders in this important sector for food security in the country. Theinstitutional reforms at the beginning of the 1990s and the increase in volumes to be processed encouraged the transfer of rice processing to new players (farmers, farmer organizations, private operators)using hullers. Thisresulted in lower processing costs, to the detriment of marketedrice quality, as the hullers only gave ungraded rice, whereas the industrial rice mills offered several qualities of milled rice. But those hullers could not meet the growing demand for quality rice from urban consumers in the country and in the sub-region. Consequently, some private operators and farmer organizations opted to procure more efficient rice processing equipment: mini rice mills carrying out cleaning, hulling, whitening, sorting and bagging operations, etc. However, their prices are 10 to 15 times higher than those of hullers. In addition, technical, organizational, commercial and financial constraintslimit the possibilities for processors to capture the national and sub regional quality rice market. Lastly, improving the quality of local rice calls for combined harvesting, threshing, storage and processing initiatives, with consequential support from research, training and advisory bodies.

International audience; Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries (SEMCs) face daunting challenges in the field of agriculture and rural development because of a nexus of problems concerning rural poverty, import dependency, deterioration of natural resources, worrisome demographic trends, etc. The problems to be solved have been well identified and a broad consensus on their nature and magnitude has emerged in recent years. Yet, recent empirical evidence, while confirming this general diagnosis and showing that significant public policy efforts have led to major improvements in recent decades, suggests that a greater sense of urgency than generally perceived is warranted. First, a brief but comprehensive summary of the situation and trends in SEMCs will be presented. The rest of the paper will then be devoted to the implications of this serious situation in the SEMCs for the whole Euro-Mediterranean relationship. We first suggest that too much attention has been given in the past to trade liberalization, from the hope in Barcelona in 1994 to create a fully free trade Euro-Med area by 2010 to the current goal of negotiating bilateral “deep and comprehensive free trade agreements” with as many SEMCs as possible. We will argue that the 2010 goal of a free trade area was utopian, and that the focus on trade liberalization has been distractive both within individual SEMCs and in the construction of the Euro-Med relationship, particularly for agriculture and rural development.

Identifying the most relevant environment related indicators and how to make them available to decision-makers are current issues. Some seek to enhance their efficiency by means of methods such as aggregations or weighting. More fundamentally, in this chapter we question how industrial ecologists appropriate the notion of environment. On the basis of multidisciplinary research, we argue that, in contexts of geographically bounded networks of social actors forging industrial synergies, environmental questions should be posed from the viewpoint of the actors. Our work might aid to operationalize the complex notion of environment in such contexts, and constitutes a call to develop anthropocentric approaches to defining environmental indications followed by appropriated indicators.

Project ARIMNET. Work Package 1, Task 1,2; The purpose of this note is to present a synthetic review of the prospective studies conducted for Mediterranean agriculture in recent years. This is designed to contribute to the elaboration by the Scientific and Strategic Advisory Board (SSAB) of an “integrated strategic research agenda”, the first objective and the first ‘Deliverable’ of the ARIMNET project, as foreseen in the project DOW document. More precisely, this note is a contribution to Task 1.2 of the first WP: “Synthesis of Foresight studies in Med Area”

International audience

Les principales huiles faisant l’objet d’echanges internationaux sont les suivantes, par ordre d’importance : l’huile de palme represente a elle seule 42% des echanges mondiaux d’huile vegetale en 1998, devant l’huile de soja (24%), l’huile de tournesol (11%), les huiles de coco et colza (6,5%) et l’huile d’arachide (1%). L’evolution des echanges d’huiles tropicales est tres contrastee : – l’huile de palme connait un boom soutenu de ses echanges depuis le debut des annees 80 (80% des exportations mondiales sont assurees par la Malaisie et l’Indonesie); – les huiles lauriques (coco, palmiste) ont une croissance stationnaire de leurs echanges; – l’huile d’arachide a connu un « coup d’arret » important suite au developpement du colza et du tournesol en Europe a partir de la fin des annees 70. Les trois produits temperes leaders dans l’echange sont le soja et le tournesol, avec une forte croissance du commerce de l’huile de colza dans le monde. L’Union europeenne est le premier importateur mondial d’oleagineux et le premier importateur d’huiles et graisses. Elle est egalement le deuxieme triturateur, si bien qu’elle reexporte sous forme d’huile une partie des oleagineux importes au prealable. La mise en place d’une politique d’autosuffisance en oleagineux a partir de la fin des annees 60 s’est traduite par le fort developpement des productions de tournesol et de colza. Une OCM oleagineux et un tarif douanier discriminatoire a l’encontre des produits tritures et raffines pour la protection de l’industrie de transformation europeenne sont toujours en vigueur. L’Afrique est en retrait sur les marches exterieurs; elle perd des parts de marche pour toutes les huiles tropicales, passant, entre la periode 1988-1990 et la periode 1996-1998, de 52 a 42% des exportations mondiales d’huile d’arachide, de 2,3 a 1,6% de celles d’huile de palme et de 1,9 a 1,1% de celles d’huile de coprah. L’Afrique est, de plus, menacee sur son marche domestique par les importations des huiles du Sud-Est asiatique.

When dealing with the sustainability of food systems, the spatial dimension merits particular attention. On the one hand, growing urbanisation and urban sprawl in different parts of the world raise questions regarding the sustainability of food supply systems for urban populations. On the other hand, the location of different activities in food systems has a strong effect on the environmental assessment of food systems. This chapter is distinctive from current scientific literature insofar as the sustainability of food systems is analysed, first, in terms of food supplies to cities, and second, by focusing on location strategies relative to production, processing and distribution activities linked to urban dynamics.

Regional and global food systems are constantly evolving, thus the contextual elements presented in Chapter 1 are likely to evolve, and food systems will be transformed. Because it is impossible to predict the food systems of tomorrow, we have adopted a foresight approach in order to try and understand possible future changes. Our approach, which is presented in the first part of this chapter, has therefore mainly been based on identitying the main drivers of the transformation of food systems. This work was the fruit of collective discussions by a multidisciplinary group made up of sorne 15 experts. The plurality of their views and their are as of competence allowed them to analyse the potential impacts of the different evolutions identified relative to the sustainability of food systems in terms of their nutritional, economie, social, cultural, environmental and territorial dimensions. This step of the analysis also enabled us to highlight a certain number of points at issue, which are presented in the second part of the chapter; this does not end with a presentation of different scenarios (as might have be en expected), but conclu des with the three transversal messages arising from debate by this workshop: issues linked to inequalities ofaccess to food, territorial dynamics and the govemance of food systems.

Les agriculteurs en zone irriguée sont confrontés à une pression croissante pour préserver la ressource en eau. Cette situation les amène d'une part, à économiser l'eau en mettant l'accent sur des productions moins consommatrices, d'autre part, à mieux valoriser les quantités utilisées. Plusieurs stratégies sont envisageables comme modifier les choix d'assolement ou adapter les modes de conduite des cultures. Ces stratégies peuvent avoir des conséquences importantes sur l'organisation des filières aval, notamment à l'échelle de bassins d'approvisionnement de l'industrie agro-alimentaire. Cet article propose une analyse des impacts et des conséquences économiques de fortes restrictions d'eau, à l'échelle des filières. Cette analyse a été mise en oeuvre en France sur le cas de la nappe de Beauce, avec la participation des acteurs des filières locales. Elle permet d'analyser les adaptations et les stratégies de chacun face à des baisses de volumes d'eau disponibles. Elle met en évidence les interactions entre les opérateurs d'une même filière et les interactions entre différentes filières.

A semi-parametric approach is used to estimate firm propensity to exit. The unobserved individual productivity of a firm is first estimated using the Ackerberg et al. (2006) approach and then introduced as a determinant of firm exit in conjunction with other variables that may serve as barriers to exit, including the firm’s level of sunk costs and the industry concentration. Using an unbalanced panel of data for 5,849 firms in French food industries from 1996 to 2002, we find a significantly negative relationship between a firm’s probability to exit and its individual efficiency and age. In addition to validating these well-known results, we also show that the level of sunk costs may be an important barrier to exit. Ultimately, the relationship between the propensity to exit and the industry level of concentration contains a turning point: the relationship is at first increasing but then becomes decreasing., Nous étudions les facteurs qui déterminent la propension des firmes à cesser leur activité. La productivité individuelle de la firme n’est pas directement observée mais estimée selon l’approche proposée par Ackerberg et al. (2006). Elle est ensuite introduite dans une équation de sortie à côté d’autres variables. On utilise un panel non cylindré de 5 849 firmes des industries agro-alimentaires françaises observées entre 1996 et 2002. La probabilité de cesser l’activité est négativement reliée à la productivité individuelle et l’âge de la firme. Au-delà de ces premiers résultats bien connus, nous montrons aussi que le niveau des coûts irrécupérables peut constituer une barrière importante à la sortie. La relation entre la propension à la sortie de la firme et le degré de concentration de l’industrie est marquée par la présence d’un seuil de retournement : d’abord croissante, la relation devient décroissante une fois ce point dépassé.

Indonesia has been the world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil since 2008. This paper discussed the livelihood impacts of oil palm development in Indonesia, based on lessons learnt from Bungo district, in the province of Jambi. The various community-company partnerships that structure the sector are reviewed and the difficulties raised by the joint ventures schemes are discussed. The merits and drawbacks of oil palm as a smallholder crop are then analysed, based on household socio-economic surveys conducted in 2007–2010. The main causes of conflicts between oil palm companies and communities are unclear land tenure, and a recurrent lack of leadership in smallholders’ cooperatives. Under fair partnerships between smallholders and companies, oil palm could become a smallholder friendly crop. The land-use profitability analysis demonstrates the high returns that can be generated by oil palm independent smallholdings, making it highly competitive with rubber, and much more profitable than rice production.

Article basé sur la contribution des auteurs au rapport "Study on competition and concentration in the agro-food sector", Aragrande, M. (coord.), Dipartimento di Economia e Ingegneria Agrarie (DEIA) Universita degli Studi di Bologna, prepared for the European Commission, July 2003; International audience; This article traces general trends in European food markets and the strategies of leading firms in selected European food chains (milk, sugar, cereals, meat). The analysis highlights the emergence of a growing divide between the largest downstream firms on the one hand and specialty and upstream producers on the other. The former have adopted globalization and financialization strategies over the past decade and promoted global sourcing under the deregulated conditions of European primary food and agricultural markets while the latter remain anchored in national or regional markets and production systems. Implications of these findings for both Global Value Chain (GVC) analysis and European policy are discussed.; Cet article retrace les tendances générales du marchés alimentaire européen et analyse l'évolution des stratégies des grandes firmes d'un certain nombre de filières agro-alimentaires européennes (lait, sucre, céréales, viande) aujourd'hui soumises au processus de réforme de la Politique Agricole Commune (PAC). Il souligne l'émergence d'un fossé croissant entre d'une part, les firmes de l'aval, qui se sont engagées dans des stratégies de globalisation et de financiarisation, et d'autre part, les producteurs de l'amont, qui continuent d'opérer sur des marchés de dimension nationale et se trouvent confrontés à une perte de compétitivité sur les marchés mondiaux. La prise en compte de ces contradictions croissantes devrait permettre de mieux anticiper les effets d'une poursuite de la réforme de la PAC.

The purpose of this seminar is to investigate the potentials and challenges that development policy and institutions in the food and agriculture sector of low-income countries hold for poverty reduction. The majority of the poor in low-income countries depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihood. However, the lack of access to improved technologies, the high transaction costs in domestic as well as export markets, as well as inadequate institutions and infrastructure constrain the poors¿ production and income-earning opportunities in the food and agricultural sector. Many of the poor depend on unsustainable agricultural practices, leading to local as well as global environmental issues such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, soil erosion and desertification. Since 1989, the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) organizes a seminar on a tri-annual basis that focuses on agricultural and rural development issues in the developing world. The main objective of this seminar is to bring together economists and other scientists working in the field of rural and agricultural development in low-income countries in order to discuss the impacts of research, development policies and institutional change concerning food, agriculture, and the environment on the pace of poverty reduction. This seminar will focus on pro-poor development policies and institutions in the food and agricultural sector that offer significant and untapped potentials for more equitable pro-poor economic growth, particularly in low-income countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Seminar will place emphasis on pro-poor development policies and institutions that promote the smallholder sector in low-income countries by offering improved income opportunities, for example in high value food chains, renewable bio-energy, and rural diversification. The majority of the poor in low-income countries depend on agriculture for their livelihood. In the past two decades, donors as well as national governments in low-income countries did not give sufficient attention to the potential of agriculture and rural areas, neither for poverty reduction nor for addressing the increasing environmental challenges such as desertification, deforestation, and biodiversity loss.

Présentation de l'éditeur : This report aims to assess the full impact of the livestock sector on environmental problems, along with potential technical and policy approaches to mitigation. The assessment takes into account direct impacts, along with the impacts of feed crop agriculture required for livestock production. The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Livestock's contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale and its potential contribution to their solution is equally large. The impact is so significant that it needs to be addressed with urgency. Major reductions in impact could be achieved at reasonable cost

Marketing through rural producers' organisations can be a way to overcome the constraints faced by individual small-scale farmers. Farming systems around the world are very diverse, yet dominated by small-scale family farming. About 75% of the 1,300 billion people working in the farming sector worldwide (3 billions with their families) still practice manual agriculture. Half of them do not use any inputs (fertilisers, seeds, etc.) because they lack the means. Only 2% of the world's farmers have a tractor and annually produce more than 1,000 mt/worker; 66% of the world's farmers annually produce less that 10 mt of grain equivalents/worker. In addition to farmers' generally low in-comes and lack of capital, marketing agricultural products tends to be hampered by such market imperfections as lack of information in rural areas, that is reinforced by the geographic dispersion of agents, and by poor infrastructure and communications. These characteristics are particularly vivid with the withdrawal of the state from productive and economic functions when the private sector is under-developed or when the market is not sufficiently attractive. Collective action can therefore be a way in which to address these obstacles and mitigate transaction costs, granted a dynamic market is identified. In the context of globalisation, characterised by more instability and competition, small-scale farmers are confronted with an increased need to enhance their competitiveness, and hence their productivity and ability to take advantage of economies of scale. Organisation can enable them to do this. Small-scale farmers face new constraints from the rapid changes in the organisation of marketing channels that are arising in the developing world. Public marketing boards are being dismantled, wholesale markets are loosing space; and supermarkets chains are spreading in Latin America, East and South-East Asia, Central Europe and Eastern and Southern Africa. Food product characteristics tend to be no longer determined by producers, but by traders, supermarkets and agro-industries that set their own standards. These private standards often substitute for missing or inadequate public enforcement of safety norms, and are used in the competition with the informal sector to claim superior food product quality. Furthermore, the rise of supermarkets tends to result in most countries in the establishment of centralised buying and distribution centres, with: (i) concomitant shifts from traditional brokers to new specialised/dedicated wholesalers and (ii) a decline of traditional wholesale systems. Small-scale producers generally lack the knowledge, information and resources to meet quality standards and formal markets' specifications. And the usual lack of formal contractual arrangements may be a disincentive for them to invest to meet these requirements. Furthermore, these requirements (quality, respect of standards and sanitary norms) are often beyond the technical and organisational capacities of such organisations. Support is then needed but it must be well thought out.

International audience; While measuring the benefits from liberalisation is obviously important, from a theoretical as well as from a political point of view, one may question the validity of the presently widespread Walrassian approach. The latter does not take account of the fact that supply is just as must (and perhaps more) risk as (average) price responsive. Now, it turns out that if (contrary to the strong versions of the “rational expectation hypothesis”), producers do not take their decisions on the basis of equilibrium prices only, then the market, instead of equilibrium, can generate very harmful seemingly random fluctuations. These considerations are incorporated into a partial equilibrium model of the world sugar industry, and a GTAP style general equilibrium model of the world economy. In both cases, liberalisation, preventing price stabilisation policies, results in more instability, and a decrease in welfare. Such an outcome is specific of agriculture and other low price elasticity commodities.

The purpose of this paper is to establish the links between competition perceived by the small firm manager and the decision to export. Using as a basis to our study a sampling of 335 small agro-food firms, the statistical model presented show that a negative connection is observed between the high perceived quality competitiveness and the fact that a firm exports.

Five sessions for this workshop : Networks of actors and enterprise innovations, Networks and products innovations, Networks and organizational innovations, Networks and market innovations, Networks and innovative strategies. Three points requested : Further research priorities, Proposals for networking among conference participants and other in, Relation between research and SYAL and LPS stakeholders. Onclusions and recommendation