Biodiversity 1 min

Agriculture and Biodiversity: benefiting from synergies

INRA has released the results of a multidisciplinary scientific assessment on the relationships between agriculture and biodiversity. Commissioned by the French ministries of agriculture and ecology, the assessment should be seen against the backdrop of a global challenge - stemming the loss of biodiversity – and approaching deadlines for national and European environmental and agricultural policies.

Published on 02 July 2008

illustration  Agriculture and Biodiversity: benefiting from synergies
© INRAE, N. Girault

The assessment describes the current wisdom on the impact of agriculture on biodiversity, as well as the services that biodiversity can render to agricultural production processes. It explores possibilities that would allow better integration of biodiversity in agricultural practices and reviews the different tools for public action.

To conduct the assessment, INRA called on about twenty experts from various institutions (including INRA, CNRS, IRD, agricultural schools, ISARA) working in different disciplines, including ecology, agronomy, economics, social sciences, and law.

Their conclusions have been published in an assessment report and a summary. They were presented and discussed with the public on 2 July 2008.

Learn more

Biodiversity

Biodiversity of leavens for high-quality breads

The diversity of baking practices, the biodiversity associated with the bakery sector (terroir, soft wheat varieties, the micro-organisms in leavens) and impacts on the nutritional and sensory quality of bread are all aspects that were studied by the Bakery participatory research project. You can find out about it in the images shown here.

01 December 2019

Biodiversity

Weed diversity mitigates crop yield losses

PRESS RELEASE - Scientists from INRA and the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Italy) have shown that not all weed communities (spontaneous vegetation) generate crop yield losses, even in unweeded conditions, and that high weed diversity is associated to a reduced risk of important crop yield losses. Published in Nature Sustainability, these results provide new grounds for sustainable weed management.

19 December 2019

Agroecology

CA-SYS: a collaborative platform for experimentation in agroecology

Through the CA-SYS platform (Co-designed Agroecological System Experiment), INRA and its partners are designing experiments on innovative and sustainable agroecological systems. This arable infrastructure is using new experimental methods by combining varietal breeding, a minimisation of inputs, the exploitation of biological interactions and the organisation of agricultural space.

28 January 2020