Un nouveau cadre conceptuel pour évaluer la contribution des filières agricoles au développement durable des territoires – application à la filière avicole réunionnaise

Increasing food security while respecting global ecosystems and human societies will be one of the major challenges of the coming decades. Agricultural supply chains are potentially powerful tools for rethinking production and food supply patterns. They are currently under pressure to include sustainability in their corporate strategy. In this context, both industry and policy makers require methods to systematically evaluate both the impact and the provision of services by supply chains to ecosystems and societies. This thesis proposes a conceptual framework to measure the progress of a supply chain in terms of its contribution to the sustainable development of the territory in which it operates. The framework includes a strategic analysis of the territory for the collective identification of issues and possible measures for technical and organizational improvement. The framework encourages the quantification and spatial differentiation of effects with a view to inter-territorial equity. The different stakeholders involved suppliers, competitors, the industrial environment and the community, should be included in the analysis. Applying strategic management theories, the number of stakeholders to include can be reduced to focus the analysis on the stakeholders that would be most affected by improvement measures. The framework can incorporate many available evaluation methods in the literature, such as life cycle assessment and the effects method, after some methodological adjustments. In each analysis, the most relevant methods are selected depending on the issues identified in the territory concerned. The conceptual framework was used to assess the effects of the main poultry supply chain in Reunion Island. Several scenarios for improvement and growth were explored to assess the prospects for progress of the supply chain towards sustainability. The effects of the activities of the supply chain on its stakeholders were calculated using two assessment methods: environmental life cycle assessment and the effects method. The results showed that in Reunion Island, the farms and the electricity supply are responsible for the majority of environmental impacts at the territorial scale, while at the global scale, environmental impacts result primarily from the production of maize, soybean and rice and the supply of electricity. Most of the social - economic impacts of the supply chain occur with in the territory, which relies heavily on services, generating local employment and strong support for rural communities. The results of the analysis also highlight the required trade - offs between reducing environmental impacts and increasing the social and economic benefits of the supply chain. The proposed conceptual framework remains to be thoroughly evaluated in other supply chains. Agricultural supply chains take very different forms in the world today and their effects on territories have not been sufficiently evaluated. The widespread implementation of a systematic conceptual framework could remedy this situation. (Résumé d'auteur)