The top-down approach, whereby scientists design “ready-to-use” packages to be adopted as they are by farmers, is being increasingly called into question. In reality, farmers often do not just adopt new systems that interest them, but adapt proposed systems to their own situation. Yet, these adaptations are seldom encouraged by agronomists and are even less so a focus of research. In this study, we designed and tested a new collective and individual learning-based approach to support farmers’ adaptation of innovative cropping systems, and applied this approach to increasing legume cultivation in cropping systems in a region of Burkina Faso where legumes have been neglected in favor of cotton. The approach is based on a sequence of three steps. First, collective exchanges during “farmers’ field days” were organized in each village around prototyping trials comparing different legume-based cropping system options proposed by agronomists. Second, farmers could choose the cropping system option that most interests them for implementation. Third, farmers progressively adapted this cropping system, in dedicated adaptation plots. Various degrees of adjustments and adaptations were observed between the options displayed in the prototyping trials and the adaptations made in the plots over a 2-year period. We classified these adaptations into five types of dynamics of change. We found that (i) farmers adapted the cropping system options differently depending on the flexibility as well as the farmer’s knowledge of the system, and (ii) the adaptations made by farmers were influenced by the discussions (both peer-to-peers and with the agronomists) that took place during field days. We thus show that collective exchanges on prototyping trials could contribute to support farmers embarking on a trajectory of change through step-by-step design.

科学家设计“即用型”包装供农民采用的自上而下的方法正受到越来越多的质疑。事实上，农民往往不仅采用他们感兴趣的新系统，而且根据自己的情况调整提议的系统。然而，这些适应措施很少受到农学家的鼓励，更不是研究的焦点。在这项研究中，我们设计并测试了一种新的基于集体和个人学习的方法，以支持农民适应创新种植系统，并将该方法应用于布基纳法索一个豆类在种植系统中被忽视的地区。对棉花的青睐。该方法基于一系列的三个步骤。首先，在“农民田间日”期间，每个村庄围绕原型试验组织了集体交流，比较农学家提出的不同豆科作物种植系统方案。其次，农民可以选择他们最感兴趣的种植制度来实施。第三，农民在专门的适应地块上逐步适应了这种种植制度。在两年的时间里，我们观察到原型试验中显示的选项与图中所做的调整之间存在不同程度的调整和适应。我们将这些适应分为五种动态变化类型。我们发现（i）农民根据灵活性以及农民对系统的了解，对种植系统的选择进行了不同的调整，（ii）农民所做的调整受到讨论（包括同行讨论和与其他讨论的讨论）的影响。农学家）是在田间作业期间进行的。 因此，我们表明，原型试验的集体交流有助于支持农民通过逐步设计走上变革的轨道。