GECOphyto: a collaborative knowledge management platform to reduce pesticide use
GECOphyto : une plateforme de gestion de connaissance collaborative pour réduire l'usage des pesticides
Résumé
The debate on pesticide use reduction in European Union has brought to the approval of the directive on the sustainable use of pesticides. In order to support the National Action Plan of pesticide reduction, French Agriculture and Environment Ministries asked the National Agronomic Research Institute (INRA) to carry out a national expertise study, Ecophyto R&D, in partnership with other research and development agencies. One of its main objectives was to define the structure of a national research and development network aiming at acquiring knowledge on integrated cropping systems. Requirements for an information system were established in order to support knowledge exchanges among researchers, farmers, advisers and teachers (Reau et al. 2010). The proposed information system is divided into two pillars: a database on experiments (BASEcophyto) and a collaborative platform (GECOphyto). In this paper, we describe the requirements we established for the GECOphyto platform. The aim of this platform is to support learning processes for a sustainable use of pesticides and make such processes more effective by sharing experiences and tools.