Historical and Sociocultural Aspects of Soil Organic Matter and Soil Organic Carbon Benefits - Soil Carbon: Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits - page 174

1952), Balfour (1944) and Rusch (1972), among
the supporters of organic farming.
Very different approaches to soil man-
agement can be observed, according to the
cultural context, Western or not, and per-
ceptions of the Mother Goddess. Two ex-
amples described by Lahmar and Ribaut
(2001), among numerous others, will serve
as illustrations:
• The religion of the Buryats, living
around Lake Baikal, is halfway between
Shamanism and Buddhism (according
to Intigrinova, 2001). In Shamanism,
the most important worship is that of
the Mother Goddess, the body of the
deity being the actual soil. It is hence
strictly prohibited to offend or hurt the
soil by working with sharp tools. Bud-
dhism, however, allows some labour-
ing of the soil, but only if absolutely
necessary, and above all, in the process,
one has to avoid killing any organism
living within. This plainly shows the
importance of beliefs and cults in man-
aging fields.
• FortheDogonsandotherAfricancul-
tures, Earth is a divinity and as such
is sacred (according to Laleye, 2001).
Earth is the Creator's spouse and is
therefore at the origin of mankind.
Among the marvellous reported legends,
the creation of the world is called
'Amma's work'. Amma moves only
arms and fingers to create the planets,
whereas for Earth, he throws a roll of
loam. Earth is created in the form of a
female body, the sex of which is an ant-
hill and the clitoris a termite mound.
Amma tries to copulate with Earth, but
the termite mound prevents the pas-
sage. To consummate the union, Amma
needs to destroy the mound, excising
Earth. The history goes on, and follow-
ing an incestuous act, Earth is left sul-
lied and soiled, a soiling that can only
be mitigated through ploughing. As op-
posed to the foregoing example, this is
how a cultural attitude may contribute
to encourage physical labour.

appropriation and adoption of particular
agricultural practices like the minimal or
no-tillage systems, a topic that is presently
of concern not only for research scientists
but also for practitioners in the USA, Brazil,
Argentina and, more recently, in Europe.
And how is the situation evolving now-
adays from that point of view in developed
or emerging countries where farmers are
relatively close to the science and the exten-
sion services when it comes to accepting in-
novations?

The Place Held by OM in Farmers'
Conceptions of Soil

Very little is known about farmer's percep-
tions of the role and importance of organic
matter. Ongoing research by the authors
with groups of farmers from the Vendée,
western France, who use different produc-
tion systems (conventional, no-till and or-
ganic farming) is trying to elucidate their
opinions about SOM, and the preliminary
results are presented here.
In the framework of sustainable agri-
cultural development, the importance of
carbon (C) for soil quality has now become
central. It is crucial to grasp how farmers
understand and characterize their soils and
the function of C in order to enhance the
implementation of farming practices that
favour C sequestration in the soil and to
understand how technical advisory services
and research can reinforce these practices.
The notion of understanding, as derived
from cognitive sociology (Darré, 1985; Bouvier
and Conein, 2007), refers to the idea that
farmers have opinions with regard to their
own practices, only partially explicit, which
can be given verbal expression within the
framework of reflective work (Giddens,
1984).
Research has considered farmers' con-
ceptions, representations and perceptions
of their soils over several years. Various
studies have already been carried out in
Europe (Ingram, 2008; Marie et al ., 2008;
Ingram et al ., 2010; Coll et al ., 2012; Goulet,
2013), as well as outside Europe (Messing
and Fagerstrom, 2001; Desbiez et al ., 2004;

These two examples show how important
beliefs and cults may be with regard to the