Viability and adaptive governance of tropical island agrosystems – GAIA-TROP

By using the French West Indies as a field of application, this fundamental research program emphasizes the adaptation of agrosystems in small island territories to global changes. The choice of these small island territories results from the extent of issues related to the ongoing global mutations they face to and from their representative features in terms of diversity in the tropical environment. Global changes that affect these areas involve a key sector: agriculture. Therefore, this reality invites to wonder about the sustainability of this sector. We assume that some agrotechnical, organizational, institutional and territorial evolutions should be implemented in order to promote a whole viable agriculture. Our research fits into several works on viability, adaptation, sustainability and resilience with mathematical interpretations of the issues tackled from these concepts. Empirically, the mathematical theory of viability allows to simulate the systems paths (i.e. agrosystems) in order to detect the set of evolutions viable in a context of uncertainty. The viability algorithm integrates identified but unpredictable shocks allowing to define the targets that are conceivable from a sustainable development perspective and specifying the rules of decision useful to reach them, despite some temporal and technical constraints imposed to the different agents in the system. Our project includes five basic steps.
From a comparative viewpoint, we will give evidence on the current state of viability concerning the farming systems (1). Then, the analysis will lead to the elaboration of socio-economic and agro-ecological indicators (2). Thereafter, we will analyse the evolution path of farming systems by considering global changes (i.e. characterisation of the future state of farming systems) (3). Hence, we will examine the adaptive capacity of farming systems (4), namely their capacities of response against shocks and more generally we will wonder about the governance of the agricultural sector in the study cases (5).
Depending on the simulated scenarii on the global changes, this research should lead to a guide of the main adaptive options the agents acting in the agricultural sector should focus on. From an action research methodology, the mathematical tool of viability will serve as an instrument to organize interactive exchange among agents and to promote local governance. The aim consists in shedding light on agents' behaviour and decisions. The scope of the interdisciplinarity of this research program founds its originality since it associates economics, geography, management science and agronomy, animal science, ecology with mathematics, in order to better specify the adaptive capacity of agriculture to global changes in tropical small island territories.