Adoption and development of cereal–legume intercropping on farms: Drivers at farm and territorial scales in individual pathways

Cereal–legume intercrops offer multiple benefits for sustainable agriculture but remain a niche practice in French arable cropping systems. Though studies have identified barriers and motivations for adopting these practices, the conditions for their long-term adoption remain under-researched. In recent years, cereal–legume intercrops have spread in some areas of France, and literature suggests that the involvement of different agricultural stakeholders can foster the adoption of innovative agricultural practices at the territorial scale. Thus, we hypothesized that this also applies to cereal–legume intercropping. Through interviews with 14 farmers from the same territory and seven other agricultural stakeholders, we identified factors at the farm and territorial scales that support the adoption and continuation of cereal–legume intercrops on both arable and mixed crop–livestock farms. This enabled us to identify three types of adoption pathways: (i) through a collective process, (ii) within organic farming, with more recently established farmers who benefited from a pathway paved by earlier adopters, (iii) from or within conventional farming systems. Collective work and exchanges were crucial for overcoming knowledge, technical and material barriers. Once adopted, cereal–legume intercrops remained, although their composition and use evolved according to the farmers’ needs and constraints. This highlights that farm-specific contexts and marketing opportunities determine the choice and use of intercrops, while securing these marketing opportunities supports long-term adoption. To our knowledge, this study is the first to explore the adoption of cereal–legume intercropping through transition pathways and to analyze the intercrops' progression over time in coherence with the overall functioning of the studied farms.