The current ecological crisis has brought agriculture as it is predominantly practised since the 1950s to a dead-end. Soil depletion, biodiversity collapse, water scarcity, and climate instability are the inevitable consequences of a system fundamentally disconnected from ecological principles and deeply unsustainable on the long run — as it rests on the illusion of the infinity of finite resources and the conception of nature as a malleable and inert matter. The crisis demands not merely incremental reforms but a profound transformation of agricultural practice and a new paradigm, one that accounts for the complexity of ecosystems and the scarcity of resources. This necessary change entails a deep transformation of what it is to be a farmer. Today, if we are to collectively find solutions that are each adapted to a great variety of contexts, farmers need to embrace the role of researchers on their own farms and join a community where progress and results are shared and collectively reflected on. Living labs, which lay at the heart of the SIMONE project, are the perfect example of this endeavour.
From Farmer to Farmer-Researcher
Meeting this challenge requires a revolutionary shift in how we conceptualize the role of the farmer. The farmer must become a researcher — not instead of being a farmer, but as an integral aspect of farming itself. This transformation involves:
- Experimentations and observations on individual farms, tailored to local soil, climate, economic and cultural contexts
- Systematic documentation of methodologies, methods, outcomes, and lessons learned through careful record-keeping
- Adaptive management based on real-world results rather than prescribed protocols
- Bridging theory and practice, integrating and pondering scientific knowledge with site-specific understanding and the new parameters induced by climate change
A farmer-researcher approaches each season as both a producer and an investigator, asking critical questions: Which practices enhance soil health? How can we build resilience to climate variability? What strategies preserve yields while reducing external inputs?
Collective Progress Through Shared Knowledge
The power of the farmer-researcher model lies not in isolation but in connection and collaboration. Progress and results are shared and collectively reflected on within peer groups of farmers-researchers. This community-based approach creates a multiplier effect:
Individual farmers no longer work in silos; instead, they become nodes in a network where discoveries and challenges circulate and feed others’ own reflections. Collective intelligence is key in this participatory process where each farmer’s contribution brings the group closer towards a shared goal. Failed interventions become collective learning opportunities. Successful innovations spread rapidly across diverse agricultural systems. In this context, Living Labs within the SIMONE project are both the foundation and showcase of these groups’ work and findings, providing the basis for collaborations within the network of today’s actors in agroecology. Indeed, the agroecological transition needs to include every stakeholder to work out: farmers, researchers, consumers and citizens, and the public and private sectors.
This model recognizes a fundamental truth: solutions must be context-specific. A technique that works brilliantly in Mediterranean vineyards may fail in temperate grain regions. A frost-dependent crop used to be a solution that can no longer be relied on nowadays. By building communities of farmer-researchers who share openly and reflect together, we create frameworks for generating and adapting solutions across the great variety and variability of contexts today’s agriculture encompasses
The Comic Strip as Showcase
The decision to communicate this vision through a comic strip available both in French and in English is particularly strategic. Comics make complex ideas accessible, engaging, and memorable. Through visual narrative, the comic illustrates:
- The challenges facing contemporary farmers in today’s agricultural context
- The conceptual leap from conventional farming to being a farmer-researcher
- What the role consists in: observation, experimentation, sharing and documentation
- The facilitating and amplifying role that the Décompacté.e.s de l’ABC play in this endeavour and its bottom-up approach, especially in the SIMONE Project.
By reaching a readership in both English and French, the publication extends its impact across linguistic and geographic boundaries, helping to build a European network of farmer-researchers united by shared agro-ecological purpose.
Conclusion
The publication of this comic strip signals a growing recognition that agriculture's future depends not on prescriptive solutions imposed from above, but on the agency, creativity, commitment and collaboration of farmers and various stakeholders. When farmers embrace the role of a researcher and join communities committed to collective learning, they become architects of a new agricultural paradigm — one that is ecologically regenerative, economically viable, and deeply rooted in the specific contexts where food is grown.
Contact details
More info : Quentin Sengers, national coordinator and mission officer for SIMONE of the association Les Décompacté·e·s de l'ABC (Conservation Organic Agriculture : french non-profit association of farmers and consumers)