Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .01

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

The agro-ecological transition at INRA

Olivier Le Gall

Nouvelles orientations pour la recherche agronomique Montpellier, Agropolis International, 10Sep13

#nora13

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .02

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

The agro-ecological transition at INRA

Worldwide, the agri-food systems are not sustainable Socially / Environmentally / Economically

The challenge of providing food to 9-Billion humans eating like 12-Billion Consequences for the demand

Change the food behavior in the North Do not adopt Northern-like behavior in the South

Consequences for the offer Increase production

Surface x productivity Decrease post-production losses Do so in a socially / environmentally / economically sustainable manner

Spare land / biodiversity / fossil C & energy Produce wealth

Current agronomical scientific approaches will not be sufficient Calls for integration of:

Technologies / partnerships / disciplines Scales of time / space / organization

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .03

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

Food security and global changes

Reducing greenhouse gases effects and adapting to climate change

Improving the economic, social and environmental performances of agriculture

Developing healthy and sustainable food systems

Promoting sustainable uses of biomass for chemistry, energy and bio-based materials

Predictive approaches in biology

Agro-ecology

1 super

challenge

2 emerging

interdisciplines

4 research priorities

across disciplines

+ +

Scientific agenda for 2010-2020

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .04

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

The meta-programs: A new tool of INRA for new challenges

To increase our consistency towards grand challenges To foster, and align with, national and international partnerships Six meta-programs already launched

2011 MEM: Microbial Ecosystems Meta-omics ACCAF: Adaptation to Climate Change of Agriculture and Forestry SMaCH: Sustainable Management of Crop Health

2012 SELGEN: Genomic Selection DID’IT: Diet Impact & Determinants, Interactions and Transitions GISA: Integrated Management of Animal Health

Two additional meta-programs soon to be launched 2013

EcoSerV: Ecosystem Services, Agriculture and Forest GloFoodS: Transitions to Global Food Security

With CIRAD

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .05

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

Food security and global changes

Reducing greenhouse gases effects and adapting to climate change

Improving the economic, social and environmental performances of agriculture

Developing healthy and sustainable food systems

Promoting sustainable uses of biomass for chemistry, energy and bio-based materials

Predictive approaches in biology

Agro-ecology

1 grand

challenge

2 emerging

interdisciplines

4 research priorities

across disciplines

+ +

INRA’s scientific priorities for 2010-20

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .06

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

What does « agro-ecology » actually cover?

A term coined in the 1930’s to name a new discipline at the crossroads between agronomy and ecology

Two other meanings since the 60’s Agro-ecology as a set of agricultural practices

Agro-ecology as a social movement

Germany

United States

Brazil .

France

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .07

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

What does « agro-ecology » actually mean?

A term coined in the 1930’s to designate a new discipline at the crossroads between agronomy and ecology

A working group at INRA to evaluate

What exactly the term “agro-ecology” carries in academic words

How to ensure the convergence between agronomy and ecology

And beyond: biology, earth sciences, numerical sciences, social sciences

How the ecological theory applies to human-imprinted environments

How can modern scientific revolutions (big data) contribute

To value biological and ecological regulations in agricultural systems

A promising field

To address academic challenges

With short-term and long-term applications

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .08

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

‘Agroecology’ in the scientific literature

2500 publications (1975-2012)

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .09

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

Keywords of the 125 articles cited >100 times

(Enlarged corpus: 33,500 articles at the interface between agronomy and ecology in 2002-2011)

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .010

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

A systemic view on agro-ecosystems emerges

Ecology

Systematics

Evolution sciences

Population ecology

Community ecology

Functional ecology

Landscape ecology

Ecological engineering

Modeling

Agronomical Sciences

Genetics

Ecophysiology

Crop protection

Veterinary sciences

Biochemical cycles

Agricultural systems

Systems agronomy

Agricultural economy

Sociology

Management sciences

Adaptation, co-evolution

Trophic and mutualistic networks

Functional traits

Stoechiometry

Meta-communities

Phenotypical and behavioral plasticity

Ecological services

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .011

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

A set of priorities established

Five priorities

P1. Biological interactions in agro-ecosystems

P2. Landscape agro-ecology

P3. Multi-criteria evaluation of agro-ecosystems and ecological services

P4. sustainable management of soil and waters multiple functionalities

P5. Innovative conception of agricultural systems, and transitions

Three additional questions

ICS&T applied to agriculture

Ecology of food systems

Agro-ecology for action

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .012

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

How much is INRA actually involved in AE?

A certainly difficult-to-answer question… Territories: 11 / 17 research centers Academic: 10 / 13 research divisions Thematic: 6 / 8 meta-programs Operational: 21-65 teams for each priority Large communities:

3 Excellence labs Montpellier, Nancy, Grignon

INRA’s 2nd largest research unit Dijon (soil biodiversity / weed control / legumes / mycorrhizae)

To run farm-scale experiments: 34 experimental units In diverse climatic and agricultural situations

To model and evaluate: 7 platforms 6 modeling 1 life-cycle analysis

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .013

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

A few examples

How to optimize biological control in an agrosystem

Involves entomology / community ecology / population genetics / population dynamics / modeling

The first events after release are similar to the situation occurring in endangered species (Allee effect)

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .014

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

A few examples

How to optimize biological control in an agrosystem

Management of crop resistances to diseases in agricultural landscapes as a response to new constraints on pesticide use Involves plant genetics / plant pathology / population genetics /

population dynamics / agronomy / management sciences / sociology / modeling (both actor strategies and disease epidemics) / dissemination

Proposes a combination of control strategies

Addresses two crop x disease situations to increase genericity Wheat x rust

Rapeseed x canker

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .015

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

Choice of Animal genetic

Select bulls to increase the robustness of the cows

Feeding strategy

Increase the proportion of grassland area in the total agricultural area of the farm

Decrease the proportion of annual crop in the total agricultural area of the farm

Decrease the stocking rate

Introduce multispecies swards (mixtures of grasses and legumes) to increase yield

Increase the proportion of grazing

Increase the nutritional quality of conserved forages

Herd management

Increase the number of lactation achieved per cows (4 lactations instead of three)

Difficulties High price of cereals and reduction of the availability of straw for the litters Acceptability of grassland based systems / variation of production according to the meteorology)

Grassland based dairy System (in plain) Specification “low-input innovative foraging systems”

Objectives : •To enter into the specification « Low input Innovative Foraging Systems » •To increase the productivity of this grassland based dairy system

Quantity

quality

Nitrate emissions

P emissions

GHG emissions

Semi-natural areas

NH3 emissions

Phosphorus

Water

Smell emissions

Veterinary drugs

Workload - Hardness profitability

Variable costs

Added

value

Debt

Direct

energy

Indirect

energy

CompactionErosion

Animal well-being

OM content

Metal track

Quantity

quality

Nitrate emissions

P emissions

GHG emissions

Semi-natural areas

NH3 emissions

Phosphorus

Water

Smell emissions

Veterinary drugs

Workload - Hardness profitability

Variable costs

Added

value

Debt

Direct

energy

Indirect

energy

CompactionErosion

Animal well-being

OM content

Metal track

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .016

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

To be implemented, agro-ecology has

To be knowledge- and technology-intensive Yesterday’s solution will not solve tomorrow’s problems in a globally

changing environment Agro-ecology is not low-tech!

Custom-made high tech

A strong need for (higher) education

To rely on concepts Think generic rather than aggregate specificities A corpus of concepts in construction

To be integrative Of innovations Of disciplines Of scales of analysis Of partnerships

Olivier Le Gall / The agro-ecological transition at INRA .017

Montpellier report panel, 10Sep13

Agro-ecology Research Symposium Paris, 17th Oct 2013 Under the auspices of the French ministry in charge of agriculture, organized by

INRA in connection with Agreenium and Allenvi Aim= to contribute actively to mobilize the communities of research, education

and agronomical innovation The symposium will summarize

The state of the art of research Ongoing research and education The interactions between innovation, research and development

Some particular aims: To qualify scientifically the agro-ecological innovation carried by the actors of the field To identify knowledge-based innovation To discuss how research can provide a frame for the AE transition of agriculture

To gather and spread knowledge To propose innovations in the short, mid and long terms To quantify/predict the expected gains of the transition To prepare the insertion in economical (supply and food) chains and territories To identify the lock-ins of the transition To propose principles and evaluation indicators