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The Innovation System of Digital Agriculture facing the ecological transition

My name is Eléonore Schnebelin, and I'm an agronomist by training, with a degree from AgroParisTech, specializing in agricultural and resource economics.
I'm doing my PhD in economics at Inra Montpellier within the UMR Innovation and in partnership with the UMR AGIR in Toulouse, co-supervised by Jean-Marc Touzard and Pierre Labarthe. I'm working on the arrival of digital technology in the agricultural sector and its implications for the agro-ecological transition.
I was interested in this thesis because it deals with a very topical subject. Digital technology is making major inroads into the agricultural sector, offering many prospects but also raising a lot of questions. How does digital technology influence agricultural innovation systems - i.e., networks, actors, institutions and knowledge dynamics - and influence the agro-ecological transition, whether or not it favors certain agricultural models? There is little information available on farmers' use of digital technology. A survey of farmers will enable us to establish different profiles of digital use, in order to understand how this development is taking place, and what impact it is having.

• Starting date: October 2018
• University: MUSE Montpellier Université d’Excelle – Institut Agro
• PhD school: Économie et Gestion de Montpellier (EDEG) – ED 231
• Scientific field: Economic sciences, Agroeconomy
• Thesis management: Jean-Marc Touzard (Inrae, UMR Innovation)
• Thesis supervisors: Jean-Marc Touzard (Inrae, UMR Innovation) & Pierre Labarthe (Inrae, UMR Agir)
• Funding: #DigitAg – Inrae
• #DigitAg : Cofunded PhD – Axe 2 – Challenge 1,

Keywords: Greening trajectories, digitalization, innovation systems, digital uses, agro-ecological transition, institutional economy

Abstract:  The thesis, which is positioned in the multidisciplinary field of Innovation Studies (Economics, Management and Sociology of innovation), mobilizes the approach of innovation systems, in order to analyze the development of digital agriculture and its possible effects on the ecological transition in the French agriculture. The thesis will thus study the modalities of adoption of digital innovations by two forms of agriculture that seek to contribute to this transition, either by "optimization of conventional practices" or by "breaking through organic farming". The research combines i) a national mapping of the innovation system of digital agriculture (census of institutions, firms, networks contributing to these innovations) with ii) the analysis of local dynamics of innovation in 3 sectors marked by both the development of digital agriculture and the coexistence of the two models which aim at contributing to the greening of agriculture: milk, cereal crops and wine (survey on a sample of farms). Digital agriculture has never been analyzed by Innovation Studies as a global movement, transforming agricultural sectors, its institutions, communities of knowledge and practices: This is a major scientific issue in research on innovation in agriculture. The thesis will contribute directly to the DigitAg convergence institute (axis 1), to the priorities of INRA (# 3Perf) and to the research on innovation network on 'Innovation (RNI).

Jury compound:

Blandine Laperche et Philippe Jeanneaux (Rapporteurs)
– Véronique Bellon-Maurel
– Vincent Frigant
– Jean-Michel Salles
– Steven Wolf
– Jean-Marc Touzard
– Pierre Labarthe

Contact :  
jean-marc.touzard [AT] inrae.fr
pierre.labarthe [AT] inrae.fr
 

Social networks: ResearchGate – LinkedIn