Obstacles, drivers and impacts of the development of organic farming in the Camargue

We present an analysis of the barriers and drivers to the development of cereal production systems in organic farming (OF) in the Camargue, as well as a multi-criteria analysis of various scenarios for the development of OF. This paper is based on agronomic monitoring of farmers’ plots, surveys of farmers and local stakeholders, and the use of models for the integrated assessment of scenarios. At the farm level, the barriers identified relate to the difficulties in identifying high-performing cropping systems and rotations within organic farming that include sufficient rice; this entails significant risk-taking, may impact financial management and may require a reorganisation of work. At the regional level, the constraints identified relate to limited technical support and a lack of coordination between stakeholders, public policies offering few incentives, and supply chain structures that are relatively opaque to farmers. At this same level, we are assessing the consequences of two scenarios for the development of organic farming based on various criteria, such as rice-growing areas, water quantity and quality, energy consumption and the jobs generated by cereal production. These results should help local stakeholders to draw up an action plan for the development of organic farming.