Assessment of the Agroecological Transition of Farms in Burkina Faso through an Empirical Approach

Résumé

Recent studies have shown that the world's agricultural production systems are not sustainable, and are struggling to feed the current population without compromising the ability of future generations to feed themselves. African countries are increasingly affected by this situation. This work is part of a paradigm shift in agricultural practices towards agroecology in Burkina Faso. To this end, a summary was produced to present research trends in agroecology and the methods used to analyze the agroecological transition. Subsequently, a typology of farms was developed using a large database of over 5,300 farms to present the state of adoption of agroecological practices and the agroecological intensity of farm groups at the national level, as well as disparities between regions for better targeting of actions in areas and groups with low levels of adoption. In addition, we analyzed the link between agroecological intensity and the level of food security of farm households, to verify how food insecurity affects different farm groups. Finally, we proposed a model for tracking changes in adoption rates, using panel data from the permanent agricultural survey. Our investigations reveal the potential to leverage the opportunities offered by machine learning methods in the process of analyzing agroecological transition. We have therefore proposed a combination of multidimensional analysis and machine learning methods in the process of developing the farm typology. A low level of combination of agroecological practices of around 9% (95% CI= [8-11%]) was obtained at the national level. From the point of view of food security, households with high agroecological intensity proved to be less affected by food insecurity than households with conventional practices (7% vs. 15%). Among other factors, poor access to agricultural credit, the low level of sales of agroecological products due to the lack of a system for identifying and promoting its producers, and the absence of subsidies dedicated specifically to agroecological products are all obstacles to the scaling-up of agroecology. On the other hand, the high level of food security of agroecological households as operationalized by WFP, the high proportion of women and youth within the adopters, and the participation of agroecological farmers in the activities of farmers' organizations could be elements on which we could act to boost the agroecological transition. The performance achieved by the models employed in this work leads to the conclusion that, in the absence of up-to-date data on some farm practices, automatic learning models can be used to predict and monitor future trends. The results of the study also imply that a reorientation of the country's agricultural subsidies and policies in favor of sustainable practices could be a driving force behind the expansion of agroecology. In addition to this, based on the agroecological intensity of the different groups of farms, the efforts to be made by each group, ranging from the integration of trees and the use of water and soil conservation and restoration techniques to the diversification of agricultural and animal species, can be deduced with a view to their reconversion.

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