How farmers use agrobiodiversity to cope with climatic variability and community change

Small scale farmers commonly use agrobiodiversity as a way to maintain the quality of their livelihood. Agrobiodiversity practices are more frequent in tropical low input agriculture but are also present in Europe. This paper first describes how farmers in Mali use more than 200 traditional varieties of sorghum in an area covering over than 1 million ha altogether, and how their photoperiodism allows reduction of drought risks and other risks. The second case presented concerns an area of 10 000 ha on a volcanic slope in the Comoros Islands where in recent years, farmers have increased agrobiodiversity by using multiple cropping including trees. Their main motivation has been to cope with population increase in an inextensible area. The general discussion concerns the methodological approach, the reasons why agronomists should have more consideration for farmers' practices, and how agrobiodiversity on small scale farms in Africa and in Europe preserves resilience and opens up an alternative in certain situations to high input farming systems. (Résumé d'auteur