EVALUATION, DESIGN AND CONTROL OF SUSTAINABLE HORTICULTURAL CROPPING SYSTEMS

available, now and in the future, to our societies. The problem is of particular importance in production systems that are often intensive and require high amounts of inputs. To fit with the increasing number of regulations and contracts growers have to respect, tools must be created to evaluate existing cropping systems and design and control original ones with respect to sustainability. Whatever the adopted technique, a systemic approach is required.
Evaluation is possible either beforehand or during the implementation of the sequence and spatial combination of crops and corresponding technical operations that constitute a cropping system. Sets of agro-ecological indicators have been designed to evaluate the fittingness to specifications of ecological sustainability of the various components of cropping systems. They can be used to assess the global environmental impact of cropping systems on environmental resources. Existing or novel management strategies can also be evaluated with simulation models.
Conception of crop management strategies consistent with objectives of sustainability has been made possible by the use of specific techniques belonging to the fields of linear programming and artificial intelligence. They make possible the generation of original crop successions and sequences of technical operations.
At last an on-line control of the cropping system is compulsory to keep it within the limits of the strategic plan. To this end, indicators can be organised in a control board, and combined to decision rules. Artificial intelligence provides a way of formalising decision rules based on either scientific or expert knowledge, and generate decisions at a tactical level.
Such examples show that indicators, models and decision support systems are relevant tools to assess the fittingness of horticultural cropping systems to the new standards of resource management.