Are management systems applied to farms interesting in Swiss context

• Published in: Revue suisse d'agriculture Vol. 40; no. 6
• Main Authors: Bourdin, D., Agridea Lausanne, Lausanne (Switzerland), Juge, C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French
• Published: 01.11.2008
• Subjects: DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS; FARM MANAGEMENT; GESTION DE L'EXPLOITATION AGRICOLE; GROUPE D'INTERET; GRUPOS DE INTERES; http://www.fao.org/aos/agrovoc#c_2799; http://www.fao.org/aos/agrovoc#c_3911; http://www.fao.org/aos/agrovoc#c_49868; http://www.fao.org/aos/agrovoc#c_7558; INTEREST GROUPS; MANEJO DE FINCAS; SISTEMAS DE APOYO A LAS DECISIONES; SUISSE; SUIZA; SWITZERLAND; SYSTEME D'AIDE A LA DECISION
• ISSN: 0375-1325

Farmers face always more complex demands from the society, their clients and the state, which result in more constraints (norms, cahiers des charges regulations) and more controls. How can farmers be supported managing this complexity? Quality and environmental management systems, that can be certified ISO 9001 and ISO 14 001, are approaches that allow the farmer to analyse the demands he his confronted to and to implement continuous improvement cycles to adapt the farm. Those cycles are composed of the following steps: assessment, definition of objectives, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Management systems have been quite successfully adapted to farms in France and Germany. In the Swiss context, the Sygèque study highlighted needs for selfsupervision and documentation management tools, as well as a potential use in management systems for extension groups. Concerning a certification, the study concluded that it would be of very low interest for the Swiss farms.