Consequences of the introduction of cereal - grain legume intercrops in the supply chain. Analysis from the perspective of farmers and cooperatives

摘要

Intercropping (the simultaneous growth of 2 or more species in the same field) is one way to solve some difficulties that organic supply chain has to face. The aim of this article is to assess the consequences and the compatibility with intercrops at 2 levels: i) cropping systems of 18 farmers from north of France and ii) the logistics ofagricultural cooperatives which collect durum wheat in Midi-Pyrenees altogether with two cooperatives that already had experimented intercrops (Terrena and AgriBioUnion).The conclusions of our work is that intercrops seem a priori compatible with farmers’ cropping systems and with the presentlogistic organization of cooperatives but the main difficulty remains the feasibility and the cost in sorting out grains. Constraints and benefits of intercrops must then be analyzed more precisely at each level of the supply chain in order to collectively develop solutions.