Combining systems analysis tools for the integrated assessment of scenarios in rice production systems at different scales

The integrated assessment of farming systems and the ex-ante analysis of future agricultural scenarios commonly make use of simulation models reproducing the sub-domains of the agro-ecosystems(Delmotte, Lopez-Ridaura et al. 2013). In the ScenaRice project we propose to integrate the information produced by stand-alone tools and models (e.g., field data, farmers’ interviews, remote sensing analysis, crop model results, expert-based rules, farming system typologies, optimization models) to assess at different levels of complexity and scales the consequences of possible evolutions of rice farming systems. Central to our approach is the development of future scenarios considering plausible changes in agricultural policy, technological development and climatic conditions. Then, the different tools and models provide information at different scales to assess these scenarios: the field, the farm and the region. We applied this combination of data source in case studies in the main Italian and French rice areas and to some extent, to case studiesinMadagascar and Sierra Leone. In this paper, we present the articulation of the different sources of information for the assessment of scenarios related to the evolution of the rice farming systems in Camargue, South of France.