Towards pesticide-free systems: a territorial co-design approach that challenges research frontiers

CONTEXT Reducing pesticide dependence has become a major scientific and societal challenge. Although substantial advances have been made in understanding the environmental and health impacts of pesticides and in developing technical alternatives, pesticide use remains widespread in industrialized agricultural systems. This persistence reflects interdependent ecological, technical, economic, social, organizational, and institutional constraints operating across multiple actors and levels, which are insufficiently addressed by current research and innovation approaches. OBJECTIVE This article examines how research can better contribute to transitions towards pesticide-free agricultural systems. It argues that overcoming pesticide dependency requires shifting from field- and farm-centered perspectives towards a territorial perspective that connects ecological, socio-technical, and collective dynamics across multiple levels, while investigating territorial transformation as a complex design process and reconsidering how research engages with the actors and processes involved. METHOD The article integrates insights from agroecology, socio-technical transition studies, territorial approaches, and design sciences to develop a territorial co-design perspective. Rather than proposing a new methodological toolkit, it considers territorial transformation as a design process and draws attention to how design issues are framed, how collective exploration and creativity are fostered, and how emerging directions are assessed and progressively redefined. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The analysis positions the territorial level as a key arena in which ecological dynamics, socio-technical constraints, collective action, and institutional arrangements can be jointly understood and transformed. It further argues that territorial transformation towards pesticide-free systems should be understood as an open-ended design process rather than approached as the implementation of predefined solutions. Engaging with such processes can generate situated knowledge while making researchers part of the processes they seek to understand, raising questions about their role, influence, and legitimacy. SIGNIFICANCE By bringing together territorial thinking, participatory research and design-oriented approaches, this article proposes a perspective for addressing one of the major challenges facing agricultural systems. It extends the research agenda on pesticide-free transitions beyond the search for technical solutions and enabling conditions. It invites broader reflection on how research is conducted, how knowledge is produced through engagement with societal actors, and how researchers position themselves in relation to the transformations they seek to understand and contribute to.