Validating a whole farm modelling with stakeholders: evidence from a west african case
2012
Andrieu , Nadine (INRA , Montpellier (France). UMR 0951 Innovation et Développement dans l'Agriculture et l'Agro-alimentaire) | Dugué , Patrick (INRA , Montpellier (France). UMR 0951 Innovation et Développement dans l'Agriculture et l'Agro-alimentaire) | Le Gal , Pierre-Yves (INRA , Montpellier (France). UMR 0951 Innovation et Développement dans l'Agriculture et l'Agro-alimentaire) | Rueff , Marine (Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, Montpellier(France). UMR CIRAD-INRA INNOVATION Innovation et Développement dans l'Agriculture et l'Agro-alimentaire) | Schaller , Noémie (INRA , Paris (France). UMR 1048 Sciences pour l'Action et le Développement : Activités, Produits, Territoires) | Sempore , Aristide (Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, Bobo-Dioulasso(Burkina Faso). CIRDES Centre International de Recherche-Développement sur l’Elevage en zone Subhumide )
Strategic and tactical decision support tools can assist farmers to make farm management decisions. The challengefacing researchers is to construct decision support tools that lead to the successful adoption of the strategiesselected. This article describes and assesses the use of a whole-farm model in West African savannah regions.Farmers and advisors were involved in the choice and design of models, the definition and analysis of scenarios,the design of alternative strategies, and the validation of models. The validation process included a short andmid-term analysis of the use and usefulness of the model for farmers. During the validation process, farmersdemonstrated that they were able to define and characterize iterative scenarios permitting the performance of theirfarm to be improved. They also had a good understanding of the outputs of the model, even several months afterthey had used the model. They declared having changed some technical or management practices and havingacquiried calculation and management skills. This type of process offers an alternative to conventional advisorymethods based on advisor expertise.
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