The agroecological transition and food system transformation

In the face of environmental and social challenges, our research must identify the technical, economic and social levers that enable the design of appropriate agricultural and food systems, through changes in farming practices and dietary regimes and the agroecological transition. It must safeguard competitiveness, environmental performance, food sovereignty and social equity.

  • Support high-performance, low-input agriculture
  • Design sustainable livestock systems
  • Develop agroecological systems engineering
  • Accelerate the transition to healthy and sustainable agricultural and food systems

FOCUS on Research & Innovation challenges

  • New approaches to surveillance and vaccination in animal health
    Diseases in livestock farming cause production losses with significant economic costs. They also pose a risk to human health. Vaccination is one of the key solutions for the future of the sector.
    Objective: develop vaccines that target high-priority diseases and meet farmers’ expectations (practicality, cost and efficacy), using digital technology and artificial intelligence. 
    Target: design five vaccines (avian influenza, epizootic haemorrhagic disease, contagious nodular dermatitis, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, bluetongue) and a tool to support public policy in optimising the implementation of vaccination strategies throughout France.
  • International trade in agricultural and food products
    Objective: assess the impact of trade and French and European trade policies on the agri-food sector in France and Europe, including the development of a methodology to evaluate the costs of standards in relation to imported producted coming from non-EU countries. In practical terms, this challenge will focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the use of antibiotics and pesticides across three sectors (arable crops including wheat; fruit and vegetables; and meat), with a view to eventually proposing compensation mechanisms.
     
  • Low carbon agricultural and food systems
  • Innovations to ensure self-sufficiency in plant-based protein and fruit & vegetable supply chains
  • Changing eating habits

France 2030 programmes coordinated by INRAE

  • PEPR SVA – Advanced plant breeding   
  • PEPR AE&N – Agroecology and digital technology (INRAE, Inria)
  • PEPR PREZODE – Preventing zoonotic disease emergence (IRD, CIRAD, INRAE)
  • PEPR Sustainable livestock farms
  • PPR CPA – Growing and protecting crops differently 
  • Biocontrol and biostimulation grand challenge

 

Our metaprogrammes 

  • SANBA  - Farm animal health and welfare 
  • METABIO – Scaling up organic agriculture 
  • SuMCrop – Sustainable management of crop health 

Our research infrastructures

  • PHENOME-EMPHASIS, plant phenomics
  • AnaEE-France, analysis and experimentation on ecosystems
  • LiPh4SAS, phenotyping of farm animals (cattle, small ruminants, pigs, fish) 
  • INRAE Genomics, supporting public and private research in genomic analysis, addressing major societal challenges
  • Calis, Consumer/Food/Health  

Dairy cows: grazing to the future

While bucolic images of dairy farming persist in our collective imagination, cows are now rarely to be found grazing in pastures. Indeed, grazing systems are undergoing shifts that are simultaneously shaped by profitability and societal expectations related to the environment, animal welfare, and food nutritional quality.

Towards healthy and sustainable food

The world’s population is growing and with it the need for agricultural and food resources, as well as the impact on the environment. To meet these challenges, research is taking action and developing concrete solutions with its partners, in particular to facilitate the adoption of diets that are both healthy and sustainable.

Scientific collaboration for pesticide-free agriculture

Synthetic pesticides, which are used on a large scale for reliable food production, contaminate the environment and affect biodiversity. By mobilising our research and expertise, we can reduce the impact of pesticides and find alternative solutions to protect crops.

How can we accelerate the agroecological and food transitions, while taking economic and social issues into account?

Agroecology provides an integrative framework for designing transitions towards sustainable systems

Meeting populations’ food needs by building on local food sovereignty, limiting the negative impacts of production methods on the environment and health, and reducing the vulnerability and strengthening the resilience of production systems in the face of global change, whilst addressing economic and social challenges, requires a fundamental rethinking of agricultural and food systems. 

Agroecology, in its broadest sense, offers an integrative framework for designing transitions towards sustainable systems that harness environmental, economic, social and public health potential. Research draws on a diversity of levers to support the agroecological transition of livestock and crop farming at different scales, from the farm to the region: biocontrol, diversification of production and production systems, genetic selection and biotechnologies, animal feed, sustainable soil management, livestock health management, digital technologies, among others.

Supporting sustainable and high performance agriculture

Faced with climate change, recurring health crises and dependence on imports, agriculture must produce enough food while using fewer pesticides and fertilisers, less water, and emitting fewer greenhouse gases. In response to these challenges, our research is developing solutions: harnessing plant diversity, more resilient plants, natural protection methods, digital tools and best practices to conserve water and nutrients. It is also working to improve animal health and genetics, their rearing conditions and feed, whilst enhancing animal welfare. Diversifying crops, preserving soils and better integrating livestock farming, crop production and resource management within local areas are key drivers for sustainable and high-performance agriculture capable of increasing the economic viability of farms and the quality of life for farmers.

These transitions require the development of agroecological systems engineering to ensure the transfer of knowledge and innovations capable of addressing the challenges facing agriculture and farmers, in collaboration with actors in agricultural development.

Sustainable agricultural production and responsible consumption go hand in hand. Moving towards healthy and sustainable diets, while taking into account access for vulnerable populations, fair distribution of income and the competitiveness of food supply chains, requires an integrated approach, from how we produce our food to how we consume it. The rise of agroecological practices and changing eating habits also require us to make adjustments in food collection, storage, processing, preservation and marketing. Our research will take into account the full costs of food by using multi-criteria analyses.

Our research examines the processes involved in establishing food quality, linking production, processing and the expectations of consumers and citizens from the very conception of new systems, in order to propose governance models suited to all stakeholders within a context of intense European and international competition.

 

More information

Our research themes: Agroecology & Society and regional strategies

INRAE 2030