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Public policy reforms and consumer requirements for the environment have raised awareness among winegrowers of the need to review their farming practices. This renewal of production aims for high economic, environmental, and social performance, as well as product quality. Therefore, it often assumes changes in farming practices due to adoption of agroecological practices (AEP). However, adopting these changes depends not only on demonstrating positive economic and environmental impacts of AEP but also positive social impacts. This study investigated winegrowers' perceptions of AEP and analyzed the most important drivers of adoption of AEP. It was based on quantitative economic and sociological data from a survey of winegrowers in the Loire Valley (France). An original scoring method was used to identify adopters and non-adopters of AEP. Then, a logit econometric model was used to explore statistically significant relations between the adoption of AEP and internal and external farm variables. Results confirmed that winegrowers' perceptions converged with the results of the econometric analysis. AEP were adopted mainly by winegrowers sensitive to human health. Adoption also depended on the context and type of AEP: wine tourism activities on the farm, environmental training, and sales revenue were positively correlated with the adoption of AEP. However, the absence of partners, vineyard area and winemaking on the farm were negatively correlated with adoption. Thus, public and private agricultural actors should consider these influential factors to increase adoption of AEP by farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weeds represent a major problem for the production of food legumes in Morocco. In order to cover its legume needs, the country currently imports this commodity, particularly lentils (Lens culinaris Medik.). The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of some agroecological strategies, such as manual weeding, fermented nettle extract (Urtica dioica L.), black plastic, and wheat straw mulching, on weed management, yield and yield components of lentil. The experiment was carried out at the Agroecology and Environment platform of the National School of Agriculture in Meknes, Morocco, in 2020–21 and 2021–22. Five treatments were tested in a complete randomized block design with four replications. The data analysis revealed that crop competition with weeds can result in a yield loss of over 60%. The weed flora identified was very diverse, with 27 different species. All treatments resulted in effective weed management compared to the control (untreated), significant economic gains and a difference in protein content, and a significant decrease in weed density and dry biomass by more than 50% at the flowering and maturity stages. The nettle extract treatment was less effective than the other treatments, but did not show phytotoxic effects on the crop, and it inhibited the germination of more than 50% of Glebionis coronaria (L.) seeds and more than 80% of Avena stirilis (L.) seeds compared to the control under laboratory conditions, which was confirmed in the field. The agroecological practices tested in this study resulted in the highest yield and yield components of the lentil crop compared to the control, leading us to conclude that reducing weed infestation is useful in cropping systems where chemical or mechanical weed control is not feasible, and for crops with low weed competitive ability. • Weed infestation can leads to a reduction in the protein content of lentil seeds. • Nettle extract has an anti-germinative effect on Glebionis coronaria L. and Avena stirilis L. seeds. • Manual weeding resulted in the highest yield, yield components, protein content and economic gain. • Mulching with black plastic is more effective in weeds management than wheat straw mulch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]