Promoting agroecological innovations through a multi-level approach to experimental requirements in crop production

Public policy is clearly geared towards making agriculture more environmentally friendly. However, few concrete objectives or incentives have been established to mobilise experimental research towards this end. Applied to 13 years’ worth of results from four experimental stations in south-eastern France, the Direct-Indirect-System multi-level analysis reveals a diversification in their action strategies. These three levels of analysis, combined with a definition of different types of agroecosystems, prove to be a promising tool for encouraging the consideration and management of agroecological innovation strategies at the level of an experimental station, a region or a production sector.