Nested scales of analysis
The methodology of agrarian system diagnosis and analysis, provides an understanding of “Mode d'exploitation du Milieu” in French terms, which means how farmers use the land (Cochet et al., 2007).
The typology of the production system is to create the model type of agricultural exploitation by grouping the farms with the same resources (land, level of mechanization, labor force) in similar socio-economic contexts, with a similar combination of cropping systems (Cochet and Devienne, 2006b). This work starts from the understanding of cropping system and animal husbandry concepts that are applied to the plot and animal raising on the farm rather than to a crop or animals. It functions as a system, which needs to be analyzed in terms of system of the set of “crops types, techniques, crops sequences and associations, history of the plot” under the specific pedo-climatic conditions. It is why it is necessary to understand the study zone called “agro-ecosystem”, which is a factor defining farmers' decisions in the choice of cropping system in order to adapt to all conditions related to agro-ecosystem but also the other socio-economic-political factors (Dufumier, 1993; Cochet, 2004; Cochet and Devienne, 2006b; Dufumier, 2006; Gafsi, 2006) (see Figure 1).
