Characterizing pesticides reduction in grape growing as environmental innovations

Abstract type : Short presentation
Submitted by : Adeline UGAGLIA
Authors and Speakers : Ugaglia

Information about other authors :

Proposition de communication -  International Symposium

« Innovation & Sustainable Development in Agriculture and Food »

June 28 to July 1, 2010 – Montpellier, France

Characterizing pesticides reduction in grape growing as environmental innovations

UGAGLIA Adeline*, DEL’HOMME Bernard*

*University of Bordeaux, ISVV, ENITAB, USC GAIA, Bordeaux (France)

1, cours du Général de Gaulle CS 40201 33175 Gradignan cedex

a-ugaglia@enitab.fr ; b-delhomme@enitab.fr

Key words : environmental innovation, grape growing, pesticides.

Hot topic(s) : Renewing research models and practices.

Objective of the paper : Considering that standard models about pesticides reduction are limited to understand and to promote new practices in grape growing, the aim of this paper is to present an new framework to study it. It shows that considering pesticides reduction as an innovation process offers new opportunities to understand mecanisms underlying its diffusion. Consequently elements characterizing these innovations will be presented before concluding on the consequences for future research programs on this topic.

Originality and main contribution : This paper proposes an alternative approach of pesticides reduction in grape growing in regards to existing ones in agricultural economics and try to determine a relevant analytical framework to study the diffusion of environnemental innovations in this sector.

Method : This is a theoretical paper and it is based on a survey of literature (theoretical and empirical) and on experience of recent research programs on this topic[1]. Applied to the case of pesticides reduction, it contributes to defining a new framework.

Results : The main results of this paper are not empirical but theoretical ones and mainly a definition and a characterization of pesticides reduction in grape growing as environmental innovations. We describe some well-known practices through this framework. Finally, the paper presents the development prospects of these innovations and make some programmatic remarks on the usefulness of this approach to highlight the determinants of their implementation in grape growing farms.

Abstract :

Vine is a crop particularly dependent on pesticides use resulting in a frequency index treatment about 13,6 in France in 2006 (enquête pratiques culturales SCEES, 2007). This crop is therefore very concerned by environmental issues and particularly by problems of water quality. The current social and regulatory context, Ecophyto 2018 report for example (Paillotin, 2008), means rethinking the practices of vineyard protection to a significant reduction in pesticides used in grape growing. Although many efforts have been made to reduce point source pollution, the quantities of pesticides used are still important. Because there is no method of cultural control or short-term genetic solution, it is now required to reduce phytosanitary applications to the vineyards to limit the non-point source pollution of surface and groundwater.

The objective of this paper is to show that the practices allowing significant pesticides reduction are environmental innovations and that they have to be apprehended through an evolutionary approach of environmental innovations (Rennings, 2000). As standard models of adoption or diffusion of such environmental practices have underlined interesting results about identification of current innovative operators in US (Fernandez-Cornejo, 1998), they failed to explain the mechanisms of diffusion of such innovations at a large scale and to make effective recommendations to policy makers. They have two important limitations (Pavitt, 1984) (i) the production of technologies and innovations are exogenous and (ii) they do not reflect the variety in source, nature and uses of innovations. In this paper, environmental practices are considered as environmental innovations and defined as « the production, assimilation or exploitation of a product, production process, service or management or business method that is novel to the organisation (developing or adopting it) and which results, throughout its life cycle, in a reduction of environmental risk, pollution and other negative impacts of resources use (including energy use) compared to relevant alternatives » (MEI report, 2008). The classic typology criteria in this approach can be applied with more or less relevance to agricultural environmental innovations (Gasmi and Grolleau, 2003). In order to characterize environmental innovations about pesticide reduction, we used the guidelines of the OCDE (OCDE - Manuel d’Oslo, 2005) but not only : the degree of novelty (Freeman, 1992 ; Winter, 1984), the scope and the intensity (Gasmi and Grolleau, 2003), the source of innovation (Possas et al., 1996), the existing supports for innovation, the competences needed (Mathé and Rivaud, 2009), etc. The two main environmental vineyard protection processes (biological control, integrated control) are described  from these elements and from some stylized facts[2]. It shows that they have not the same characteristics and that they probably would not have the same determinants.

As an outlook, this approach of vineyard protection argues for a consideration of a dynamic study of its determinants as regulation, demand, technological opportunities and networks. The implications for research in economics are then relatively clear as environmental innovations in grape growing are certainly the result of a complex combination between many determinants and that they have now to be tested in a dynamic perspective. The paper is structured as follows. First, we define what is currently an environnemental innovation for pesticide reduction in grape growing. Then, we give some elements to characterize these environmental innovations and describe the two main ones for pesticide reduction (biological control, integrated control). To conclude, we discuss some implications for research in economics on this topic.

Keywords :
environmental innovation, grape growing, pesticides