Approche cognitive de pratiques agricoles : intérêts et limites pour les agronomes

Cognitive approach of farmers' cultivation practices: advantages and limits for agronomists Most of the decision supports for technical crop management have been designed by using agronomic knowledge and agronomic reaso­ ning. A cognitive approach of farmers'practices has been conducted in order to identifiy farmers'knowledge and reasoning for techni­ cal crop management. More precisely, the way farmers carry out the tilling and sowing task for the sugar beet crop has been studied in some farms of northern France (Picardie). Results allow to consider that farmers'knowledge about biophysical processes is organised by their knowledge about actions. Furthermore, results show that farmers anticipate the way of carrying out the task, and that such an antici­ pation influences (i) their representations about the cultivated field on the one hand, (ii) the way they take climatic risks into account on the other hand. The author first explains the dif­ ferent steps of a cognitive approach of farmers'practices, then gives some results and dis­ cusses their advantages and limits in order to facilitate the use of decision supports with the aim of helping farmers to modify their practices.