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article

31 May 2024

By: OR

One-year post-doctoral position in agroecology

We are offering a one-year post-doctoral position to assess the interactions between legume bruchids (Bruchus spp.) populations, their natural enemies and their agroecological context.
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article

03 April 2024

By: OR

EUGLOH E-conference on Food security

This e-conference is part of an ongoing series organized by the EUGLOH Alliance, focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For this edition, the University of Paris-Saclay and the Lund University decided to co-host a conference dedicated to exploring Goal 2 of the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals: Zero Hunger. Nicolas Guilpart, from UMR Agronomy, was one of the speakers
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article

21 December 2023

By: OR

Grain legume response to future climate and adaptation strategies in Europe, a review of simulation studies

In Europe, increasing the area of legume crops has been identified as a key measure to achieve the objectives set by the European Green Deal and transition toward more sustainable food systems. Although the role of grain legumes in climate change mitigation has been closely examined, little research has focused on how climate change will challenge the development of these crops. This article systematically reviews recent simulation studies to assess the impact of climate change on grain legume performances in Europe and the effect of adaptation strategies.
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article

18 December 2023

By: OR

Impact of a large-scale replacement of maize by soybean on water deficit in Europe

The EU imports large quantities of soybeans, mainly for livestock feed. However, there is a trend to increase domestic soybean production and reduce imports. In this study, we investigate the potential impact of an increased EU soybean cultivation on evapotranspiration (ET), water deficit, and irrigation needs.
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article

05 December 2023

By: OR

Pesticide-free arable cropping systems: performances, learnings and technical lock-ins from a French long-term field trial

The aim of this study was to assess the medium-term performances of a pesticide-free (but allowing the use of synthetic fertilizers) cropping system, designed to achieve high yields while meeting a multiplicity of environmental objectives. This system was compared with a low-input cropping system designed to meet the same environmental objectives (PHEP: Productive with High Environmental Performances). This assessment carried out over eleven years, took place in a field trial in the Paris Basin (France). The ban of pesticides did not result in any significant difference in average yield between systems across the crop sequence. However, the yields of some crops were significantly reduced. In the pesticide-free system, the technological quality of cereal grains was not penalized. Most agri-environmental indicators showed better performance in the pesticide-free system. However, fuel consumption and labor time per hectare for weed control were significantly higher. The study identified highly effective farming strategies for avoiding pesticide use, as well as several technical bottlenecks limiting regular production in pesticide-free systems.
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article

04 October 2023

By: OR

Unravelling the step-by-step process for farming system design to support agroecological transition

Given the huge challenges agriculture has to face, both in Northern and Southern countries, a radical change in farming practices towards agroecology is required. Most scientific literature on the design of new farming systems describes de novo approaches, which focus on disruption and novelty, without any concern for the way to move from the current system to the innovative one. In this study, we highlight, for the first time, the particular traits of what we will call the step-by-step design approach.
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crop field margins with the presence of flower strips photo credit: Paola Salazar
article

05 December 2023

By: OR

How agricultural techniques mediating bottom‑up and top‑down regulation foster crop protection against pests

Davide Bellone, Antoine Gardarin, Muriel Valantin‑Morison, Alan Kergunteuil, Foteini G. Pashalidou, Agronomy for Sustainable Development (2023) 43:20
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habitations à promixité de zones agricoles, cliché Christophe Maitre, INRAE
article

05 July 2023

By: OR

Residents' exposure to pesticides: how close are agricultural areas to residential buildings in France?

In a decree issued in 2019, the French government defined mandatory pesticide-free buffer zones near residential buildings in order to limit the exposure of residents to pesticides. However, the amount of agricultural area and the crop species grown close to residential buildings had never been studied before in France. This knowledge gap has recently been filled by a team of researchers and teacher-researchers from our lab (UMR Agronomie). They show the amount of agricultural area and crop types within pesticide-free buffer zones around residential buildings vary greatly depending on agricultural regions and the size of buffer zones.
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Photo: © Margot Leclère INRAE
article

05 July 2023

By: OR

A diversity of On-Farm Experimentation practices and associated farmer-researcher relationships

Experimentation conducted by or with agronomists on farmers' farms is not a fixed methodology, and even less a one-size-fits-all one. There is a wide diversity of ways of implementing experimental protocols, carrying out monitoring and evaluation, and making use of the results. This article proposes an analysis of this diversity via a review of the scientific literature and the identification of 7 types of on-farm experimentation practices.
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Spatial distribution of monitored plots (winter wheat, winter barley, maize, rape, sugar beet and potato)
article

05 July 2023

By: OR

Effects of landscape characteristics on crop pests

Landscape management is often seen as one of the levers to be used to improve pest management. However, the complexity of interactions makes it difficult to establish general rules, and, depending on the pests studied, landscape elements can have opposite effects, which have been reported in numerous scientific publications. In this study we link French epidemiological surveillance data for 30 of the main pests of French field crops with national maps of tree and field crop areas.
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Photo of a bird exclusion cage placed from February to June on an oilseed rape field, and photo of a western yellow wagtail
article

05 July 2023

By: OR

The role of birds in the regulation of insects in arable crops

In arable crops, birds often occupy the highest position in the food chain, feeding on pests (phytophagous insects that attack crops) and their intermediate predators, mainly insects and other arthropods (such as spiders), that feed on these pests. The effects of bird predation on insect pest populations are difficult to estimate without a complete description of prey-predator communities and their complex interactions.
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article

03 April 2024

By: OR

Climate Change Explorer, an interactive map to understand the future global climate

It can be difficult to imagine the impact of climate change on our lives and in particular on local cultivated vegetation. Based on the results of the climate models used by the IPCC for its reports, we propose a visualization of the expected evolutions of local climates according to global greenhouse gas emission scenarios. These evolutions are compared to the climates found in the world between 1970 and 2000 to identify current climate analogues to future climates: in order to represent the future climate of a considered place, we look for places on the planet whose current climate is similar to this projected climate.
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