Participatory design of agroecological farming systems needs to match the collective goal of transformation with farmers' professional projects

Transforming agricultural systems toward more sustainable production pathways is a current societal demand. Researchers are invited to take part in and to account for this transformation. Consequently, some of them use participatory approaches to re-design farming systems, embedding farmers in the process in order to increase the success of effective transformations. However, the inclusion of the farmers does not always ensure that real transformations will occur. This uncertainty stems from the possible gap between the individual projects of farmers and the collective project that set the transformation goals. We believe that filling this gap requires taking account of and understanding the farmer’s situation: the one on which he can actually act. To explore these tensions between the individual and the collective sides, we analyzed a participatory project led by five farmers among a group of 100 dairy sheep farmers located in the south of France. The objective of these five leading farmers was to design a method to trigger the agroecological transformation of farming systems by showing the other farmers that it is possible to improve at the same time their income, their autonomy and to protect the environment. Our analysis of the first steps of this project suggests that taking farmers' professional projects into account when willing to facilitate the transformation of farming systems allows them to effectively consider possible changes in their system. As such, transforming agricultural systems calls for participatory approaches that take farmers’ individual projects into account and help them to define their specific situation, identifying the levers that they can actually activate to change it