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MAGELLAN Team

MAGELLAN - Methods for Agroecology and local management of agricultural and natural resources

The scientific project of MAGELLAN aims to produce knowledge, concepts and methods for and about the agroecological transition of arable crop, livestock farms and their territories, and to support the agroecological transition of these farms and territories.

Our team conducts interdisciplinary research in agroecology involving biotechnical disciplines (systems agronomy, systems zootechny, modeling, ecology, etc.), in collaboration with colleagues in the humanities and social sciences.

Many uncertainties remain regarding the agroecological transition of arable crop and livestock farms, whether in terms of how to design agroecological farms, implement the transition or assess its effects. Our research aims to reduce, cope with and manage these uncertainties by producing knowledge, concepts and methods (i) for this agroecological transition - i.e. on farming systems that implement agroecological principles - and (ii) on this transition, i.e. on farming systems in transition to agroecology.

This involves, for example, clarifying the links between agricultural and natural resources (in particular cultivated, bred or associated agrobiodiversity) and the links between farming systems management and associated trade-offs (food and fiber production, soil carbon storage, nitrogen supply and leaching, job creation, supply of healthy food, etc.), in agroecological farming systems or in transition to.

Our strategy is based on three types of research activities: 

  • comprehensive analysis
  • co-design
  • modeling

Each of these research activities represent different points of view (constructivist vs. objectivist, present vs. future) on the agroecological transition of farms. They have different aims in terms of understanding, representing and developing farmers adaptative capacity.

Comprehensive analysis enables us to characterize farmers' adaptative capacity and the effects associated with the implementation of agroecology and agroecological transition on the services provided by agriculture. The co-design and implementation of scenarios enables in situ experimentation of agroecological transition or innovative agroecological systems. The use of digital models facilitates the interpretation of comprehensive analysis and provides stakeholders data to fuel their thinking. We are committed to linking field research, where knowledge is co-produced with our partners, and modeling activities that remobilize this knowledge.

On-going projects of the team :

Modification date: 10 January 2025 | Publication date: 27 September 2013 | By: umr agir