Diversity of conversion strategies for organic vineyards

An increasing number of vineyards are converting to organic farming due to concerns about the environmental impacts of agriculture. How difficult this shift is depends on farms’ biophysical and economic situations as well as on their specific dynamics. Methods to analyze, assess, and support transition strategies are needed. In this context, the hypothesis can be made that the efficiency-substitution-redesign approach, which is used for describing the level, intensity, and speed of changes made by vineyards, could be used to classify transition strategies. On-farm interviews and surveys were conducted at vineyards in conversion to organic farming in two French winegrowing regions: Languedoc and Bordeaux. The agronomic changes made to various grape production technical operations during the conversion period were described and assessed by using the efficiency-substitution-redesign approach. Potential economic consequences of conversion were measured by looking at farms’ accounting records. Considering the high number of variables taken into account in the detailed analysis of each operation for the conversion to organic farming, the efficiency-substitution-redesign approach was successfully used to classify transition strategies according to the type of changes made. The results showed that change intensity varied between farms with no clear correlation between the type of changes and economic consequences. Farm trajectories were then correlated to the speed and intensity of changes with quantitative transition indicators. Here, a quantitative application of the efficiency-substitution-redesign approach was used for the first time to assess and classify organic farming conversion strategies according to a scale of change intensity and speed of changes. These results are essential to enhance understanding of what happens during conversion to organic farming and to better support winegrowers’ trajectories.