L’adoption du semis direct sous couvert végétal : transition douce ou rupture ?

National audience ; Direct seeding under cover meets three principles applied simultaneously and continuously: almost total reduction of tillage, maximum soil coverage and diversification of rotation. Its adoption started in France in the 2000s and today seems to convince more and more farmers. For farmers, the adoption of a new system means changing practices, by important ways or not. For direct seeding under cover, few is known about the required changes. The purpose of this article is to clarify the changes that can occur for farmers when adopting direct seeding under cover. An online survey was conducted: 425 French farmers responded. Results show that the adoption of direct seeding under cover has deeply changed the practices of 30% of farmers. For others, changes concern only one or two principles. The most important changes (for 96% of farmers) concern the almost total reduction of soil tillage principle. On the contrary, changes are less important for the diversification of rotation. Only 48% of farmer modify their crop rotation when adopting direct seeding under cover. Optimizing soil coverage represents a change for 67% of farmers. During first years, soil coverage is mainly achieved through multi-species temporary cover crops. By upsetting fundamentals of conventional farming, these farmers seems to minimize risks when adopting direct seeding under cover by a soft transition way and by sharing knowledge.Résumé – Le semis direct sous couvert repose sur l’application simultanée et continue de trois principes :la réduction quasi-totale du travail du sol, une couverture organique des sols et une rotation diversifiée. Cesystème agricole adopté en France à partir des années 2000 sous l’impulsion de groupes d’agriculteurs est enextension. Pour les agriculteurs, adopter un nouveau système agricole revient à modifier, de manière plus oumoins importante, leurs pratiques. Concernant le semis direct sous couvert végétal, peu d’informationsexistent. Cet article a pour objectif d’éclairer les modifications que ...