What adaptation strategies can agro-ecological Mediterranean agropastoral farming systems use to cope with climate change?

I'm Romane Jarry, a PhD student at UMR SELMET, INRAE Montpellier. My research focuses on adaptation strategies for Mediterranean agropastoral systems in the face of climate change, while remaining in line with the principles of agroecology. I'm an agricultural engineer with a degree in Comparative Agriculture and Agricultural Development from AgroParisTech. I worked as an agro-economist at the French Chamber of Agriculture, in particular on the impact of the new CAP on mountain and pastoral systems. I then worked as a pastoral engineer at CERPAM in the Hautes-Alpes region, working with pastoral groups in mountain pastures. These three years of experience fueled my interest and curiosity in the challenges of agropastoral systems, and I decided to delve deeper into these issues by writing a thesis on the subject. My work focuses on Mediterranean sheep farming systems. I'm working on Roquefort dairy sheep systems and Sisteron lamb suckling sheep systems at flock and farm levels. I use co-design with stakeholders in the field and multi-agent modeling to simulate different scenarios in order to assess the impact of changes in practices and the evolution of the agroecological performance of these systems, in order to adapt to climate change. I work with two experimental farms: Lafage (Roquefort dairy sheep) and Carmejane (Sisteron lamb suckling sheep).
The methodology seemed very interesting. I wanted to stay close to the issues in the field, and be forward-looking. So the approach of working with experimental sites, co-design and modeling was of great interest to me. What's more, I wanted to work on the subject of pastoral systems. This thesis is very complete, and has helped me on both counts.
I've started meeting local stakeholders to discuss the issues at stake in my thesis. They have a major interest in the subject and have been working on it for several years. They seem interested in using the simulator to test, refine and anticipate the changes in practices they are currently considering.

• Starting date : 2 November 2023
• Research unit: Selmet
• University: Institut Agro
• PhD school: GAIA
• Scientific field:  Agronomy, modelling
• Thesis management: Amandine Lurette, UMR Selmet, Inrae et Patrick Taillandier, UMR MIAT, Inrae
• Thesis supervisors: Fabien Stark, UMR Selmet, Cirad et MO Nozières-Petit, UMR Selmet, Inrae
• Funding: Inrae
• #DigitAg : Axe 6 : Modélisation et simulation (systèmes de production agricole), Challenge 4: Des productions animales durables, Challenge 1 : Le challenge agroécologique

Keywords: Pastoralism, Climate Change, Adaptation, Agroecology, Multi-agent modelisation, Co-conception

Abstract: In view of the challenges facing livestock farming today, Mediterranean agropastoral systems based on available pastoral resources appear to be interesting agroecological models, but are particularly affected by climate change (CC). With the dual aim of adapting to CC and making the agro-ecological transition, we need to examine the consequences of adaptation strategies on the performance of these farms. The aim of the thesis is to understand the antagonisms and synergies between the agroecological properties of pastoral sheep systems and their ability to adapt to climate change while mitigating its impact, in order to design resilient and efficient agropastoral sheep systems. The proposed research system is based on a co-design mechanism combining workshops involving experts in the farming systems under study and the use of a simulator as a modelling tool to support co-design and evaluation. This system will be applied to two case studies (suckler sheep and dairy), and adaptation strategies will be designed and calibrated for simulation and evaluation in order to identify the compromises inherent in the proposed strategies.

Contact: romane.jarry [AT] inrae.fr 
Social networks: ResearchGate - LinkedIn