Social-ecological systems are omnipresent and the understanding of their functioning became a priority not only to approach in a common and precise way the questions raised by the action of human on its environment, but also to identify trajectories and investigate forward-looking scenarios on the basis of which, management strategies could be developed. Applied to a crop pest in the Northern Andes, a cellular automaton approach allowed us to identify key human factors of pest dispersal and to construct maps from presence/absence probability. Afterward, the integration of genetic variability through an individual-based model facilitated the exploration of pest populations structure scenarios. For a better understanding of pest spatio-temporal dynamics, an agent-based model approach, theoretical then empirical, supplied elements of explanation of observable delays between the development of a crop protection innovation and its application by farmers of a small agricultural region, through an information diffusion model coupled with the previous approaches. To further exploit these results after a fruitful participative research in the study zone, an innovative method based on a model was fitted into a farmers' training program to underline the necessity of a systematic approach for an effective integrated pest management program. Despite some limitations, these approaches could be applicable more widely to any agricultural program in social-ecological systems.
