[PhD student] Noémie Bechtet: Digitalisation and transformation of agriculltural R&D. New service models for new agricultural models?

Digitalisation and transformation of agriculltural R&D. New service models for new agricultural models?
 

• Starting date: October 2019
• University: Université Fédérale de Toulouse
• PhD school:  TESC – Temps, Espaces, Sociétés, Cultures
• Scientific field: Economics
• Thesis management: Pierre Labarthe, Inrae, Agir
• Thesis supervisors: Pierre Labarthe, Inrae, Agir et  Jean-Marc Touzard, Inrae, Innovation
• Funding: #DigitAg – Inrae
• #DigitAg : Cofunded thesis – Axe 2 – Challenge 5

Keywords: Agriculture - digitization - farm advisory services - R&D

Abstract: The aim of the PhD is to analyse the effects of the digitalisation of agriculture on the functioning of agricultural R&D. There is a need to better understand how digitalisation transforms the collective organisations that farmers have set to produce knowledge on the technologies they use. Digitalisation of agriculture comes with the emergence of a market for Decision Support Tools, with alliances and competition between actors to create value and knowledge with and for the farmers. New actors are active in this market: start-ups, multinational firms… These actors can potentially impact the economic models of services delivered to farmers (advisory services, knowledge brokering, experimental platforms…). They can also contribute to changes in the networks, rules and institutions of agricultural R&D. These trends also question the nature and content of agronomic knowledge on which farmers’ Decision Support Tools are built. What are the sources for this knowledge? Who invest in the validation of the relevance and robustness of this knowledge? Is this knowledge compatible with the development of agro-ecological conceptions of agriculture? The PhD thesis will benefit from the research project H2020 AgriLink, coordinated by Pierre Labarthe. This will allow the PhD candidate to implement a comparison between three countries: France, the Netherlands and United Kingdom. The methodology will be based on qualitative field work, with interviews of public and private actors of agricultural R&D and of the supply of services for farmers. An in-depth analysis will be implemented on the development of a given technology in the three countries. The technology is to be identified by the PhD candidate. This PhD will reinforce the relations between the laboratories AGIR and Innovations for the analysis of digitalisation of agriculture in a pluridisciplinary perspective, building on economics and management sciences.

Contact : noemie.bechtet [AT] inrae.fr​ – Tel: +33 (0)5.61.28.50.96