Agrarian diagnosis: understanding the evolutionary trajectories of local agriculture to provide input for future water scenarios on a territorial scale

Abstract

The expansion of irrigation in the Adour-Garonne Basin has led to a growing imbalance between uses and water resources, amplified by climate change. Since 2019, Territorial Water Management Projects (PTGE) have been deployed in certain territories to achieve a sustainable balance between needs and available resources. To support these territorial approaches, an in-depth, shared understanding of the territory is essential right from the diagnosis phase. This must necessarily be based on a better understanding of agriculture, the main user of water and a frequent source of tension. The systemic agrarian diagnosis method, developed by AgroParisTech's UFR d'Agriculture Comparée, has been implemented for this end in several areas. It enables us to understand the evolutionary dynamics of the cultivated ecosystem and of agricultural production systems, by clarifying the role of irrigation, which have led to the current situation, and to study the technical and economic functioning of the various current production systems. This work has shed light on the importance of irrigation in maintaining farms. A better understanding of local agriculture and the issues it faces today provides a solid basis for co-constructing forward-looking scenarios for the region.