Farms and territories: crossing agronomy and geography to elaborate multifunctional farming systems

Format d'édition : CD Rom http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ISDA2010National audienceAgricultural development is today one of the most complex challenges. Rural and urban populations have their expectations on agriculture and agricultural development and farmers, researchers, technicians, NGOs and policy makers, among others, continuously develop alternatives at different scales (policies, regulations or technical and organisational innovations) to strengthen the sustainability of the agricultural sector, ensure food production, and preserve the environment and culture. In this article we examine the possible dialogue between two research fields especially important for agriculture: Agronomy and Geography. Through a brief history, the first section presents the development of key milestones in agronomy and in geography as well as their main scientific questions and methods. The interface farm-territory is identified as a potential meeting point, where applied objectives of both disciplines - the agricultural production for agronomy and the land use management for geography - takes a new direction. The second section describes four examples where the analysis of the interface farm-territory is essential: the implementation of multifunctional practices in farms, whether they are for environmental, landscape or leisure objectives, and their articulation with surrounding territories ; the analysis of development trajectories of land use systems and the interactions between the spatiotemporal dynamics of farms and territories; the interactions between farms and the supply chain in which they are inserted (eg. agroindustry, urban markets).In conclusion, we discuss the main challenges and opportunities to develop this integration of research between agronomy and geography. The development of new approaches dealing with the farm-territory interface can not be done without scientific innovation, open reflexivity and taking risks included in any interdisciplinary approach