USDA pays a visit to INRAE's Estrées-Mons agri-environmental facility

Regional press release - On Wednesday, 7 December, the European Commission arranged for agricultural sector representatives from both sides of the Atlantic to tour INRAE's Estrées-Mons site. This visit was part of a collaboration agreement with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Nearly 80 people from the USDA and the Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development toured field trials highlighting European agriculture and innovation.

Published on 07 December 2022

© INRAE

Scientists from INRAE's Crop Innovation and Environment Experimental Unit and BioEcoAgro Joint Cross-Border Research Unit presented their work on mixed cereal-protein crop systems and long-term monitoring of soil carbon based on the crop management sequences used.

This site includes a facility for conducting trials in beet crop fields that showcases innovations and alternatives to plant protection products (glyphosate, rotation diversification incorporating pulses) and a biobased economy (biomass energy or biobased materials using miscanthus).

BioEcoAgro researchers are studying possible genetic improvements to protein crops (winter peas) such as cold tolerance, climate-change-induced changes in seasonality (phenology), and adaptation to intercropping with cereals. All this in a view to crop diversification, so as to enhance environmental services (reduced use of pesticides, improved greenhouse gas balances) while maintaining farms' economic and production performances. The field trial visited is a joint venture with Agri-Obtentions focusing on techniques for mixed cereal-protein crop systems.

Innovation is also being showcased through the ACBB (agro-ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles and biodiversity) environmental research observatory with the study on the effects that field-crop-system farming practices have on soil-carbon and nitrogen dynamics, water and air quality, and biodiversity. This measurement and observation system has been specially equipped to monitor biogeochemical processes. Different farming practices are used (tilling/no tilling, straw restoration/export, type, low-level nitrogen fertilisation) in order to take into account their impact on biogeochemical cycles dynamics and their consequences.

INRAE and its partners, in particular Agro-Transfert Ressources et Territoires, presented their research and highlighted the various aspects of innovation transfer to farmers. The research conducted at INRAE, and in particular in Estrées-Mons, aims at producing knowledge and innovation for the agroecological transition of farms.

 

 

Aline Waquet

head of communication

Hauts-de-France research centre

Scientific contact

Julien Fosse

President of INRAE Hauts-de-France research centre

Centre

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