[HDR defence] 10/04/2025 - Rodolphe Sabatier: "Modelling the capacity of diversified agrosystems to cope with uncertainty" (UR INRAE Ecodeveloppement)

Rodolphe Sabatier will submit his Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) on 10 April 2025 on the theme: "Modelling the ability of diversified agrosystems to cope with uncertainty".

Date and place

10 April 2025, 2pm
Avignon University, Hannah Arendt campus, in the thesis room

Discipline

Agronomy

Laboratory

UR INRAE ECODEVELOPPEMENT

Members of the jury

Ingrand, Stéphane	IR	Zootechnics	INRAE	PHASE department
Hossard, Laure	DR	Agronomy	INRAE	Innovation
Mathias, Jean-Denis	DR	Mathematics	INRAE	LISC
Bates, Samuel	PR	Economy	University of the West Indies	LC2S
Rapaport, Alain	DR	Mathematics	INRAE	Mistea

summary

By putting ecological processes back at the heart of production dynamics, ecologically-based farming systems have to cope with a large number of uncertainties. Resilience, adaptability and flexibility therefore become key properties of these systems.

Based on recent developments in the mathematical framework of viability theory, which I apply to nine case studies in plant and animal production, I propose a formal framework for evaluating these properties using numerical methods. This work shows how moving away from a single-criteria optimisation logic is all the more relevant when we are interested in ecologised systems, i.e. complex, evolving systems with inherently uncertain dynamics. Understanding the viability of these systems requires us to consider not only their structure (the states) but also the range of management options available (the controls) to maintain them in a range of situations deemed acceptable (viable) by the farmer. This may involve broadening the view of the system under study by taking into account all the components involved in the farmer's objectives, even if this means going beyond the strict agricultural framework.

In the same way, this broadening of the point of view leads us to consider the farming system in its environment, integrating interactions with other stakeholders in the area. These changes of scale, which I will consider in the remainder of my research, raise methodological issues in terms of continuing to apply the sustainability framework to larger systems (of greater dimensions), but also in terms of transposing its main concepts to more qualitative approaches.