Farmers’ experimentation has long been identified, but until now, its dynamics has hardly been studied at all. The subject is however gaining new interest, as by enabling farmers to learn new cropping practices on their farms, their experimentation could be a driver of transition towards agroecology. The aim of this study is to understand the multiannual experimental itineraries that farmers follow when they try new agroecological practices on their farms. Sixteen cereal and vegetable French farmers were surveyed to establish how they had experimented with agroecological practices over the last decade. They were questioned on their experimentation objectives, the origins of the practice tested, their observations in the field, and the degree of attainment of their objectives. We defined the concept of experimental itinerary as the chronological and logical combination of annual experimental situations. Similarities and differences between the experimental itineraries of the 16 farmers were sought. The results are threefold. First, we showed how a farmer progressively builds an experimental itinerary over years after the introduction of a brand new practice. Second, by analyzing the 33 experimental itineraries identified in the sample, we demonstrated that some types of experimental situation occur more frequently at the beginning, some in the middle and some at the end of the experimental itinerary. Third, we identified four patterns of experimental itinerary (low investment, linear, tree, and grove patterns) that correspond to different ways the farmers organize the annual experimental situations over the years. The novelty of the results lies in the in-depth understanding of the inter-relations between successive experimental situations that has never been described before. We finally discuss the results with an operational focus, that is, how the representation of experimental itineraries could support farmers in their experiments and enable them to learn more efficiently.

农民的实验早已被确定，但直到现在，它的动态几乎没有被研究过。然而，该主题获得了新的兴趣，因为通过使农民能够在他们的农场学习新的种植方式，他们的实验可能成为向农业生态学过渡的驱动力。本研究的目的是了解农民在农场尝试新的农业生态实践时遵循的多年试验路线。对 16 名谷物和蔬菜法国农民进行了调查，以确定他们在过去十年中如何尝试农业生态实践。他们被问及他们的实验目标、测试实践的起源、他们在该领域的观察以及他们实现目标的程度。我们将实验行程的概念定义为年度实验情况的时间顺序和逻辑组合。寻找16名农民的实验路线之间的异同。结果是三倍的。首先，我们展示了在引入全新实践后，农民如何在多年内逐步建立实验路线。其次，通过对样本中确定的33条实验行程的分析，我们证明了某些类型的实验情况在实验行程开始时出现的频率较高，有些在中间，有些在实验行程的末尾。第三，我们确定了四种实验路线模式（低投资、线性、树木和小树林模式），它们对应于农民多年来组织年度实验情况的不同方式。结果的新颖性在于对以前从未描述过的连续实验情况之间的相互关系的深入理解。我们最后以操作为重点讨论了结果，即实验路线的表示如何支持农民的实验并使他们能够更有效地学习。