Using the French LPIS database to highlight farm area dynamics: The case study of the Niort Plain

摘要

Decreases in the number of farms over the last decade have led to an increase in mean farm size and a fragmentation of the land on the remaining farms. These changes can influence the management of cropping systems by farmers, generally leading to a decrease in crop diversity at the landscape scale and a homogenization of agricultural practices between fields, to reduce logistic costs. At the landscape scale, these changes can modify agricultural pressure on natural resources (e.g. water, soil, biodiversity), by creating hotspots of fields subject to intensive management. Consequently, natural resource management, mostly at the local scale, requires new monitoring tools dedicated to local farm dynamics.