Agroecology 3 min
Visiting the Toulouse center, Minister of Agriculture Julien Denormandie welcomes the commitment of research to innovation
Julien Denormandie, the French Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, visited the INRAE Occitanie-Toulouse center to discuss innovation for farmers. This was an opportunity for Guillaume Martin, researcher at the Joint Research Unit for AGroecology, Innovations and teRritories (AGIR), to present the systemic approach of herbivore farms, and researchers from the Field Crops Experimental Unit to present plant phenotyping at the service of research and innovation.
Published on 09 March 2021
With 2,000 employees and 21 units, the Occitanie-Toulouse center is characterized by two features: (1) its high-level research infrastructures (high-throughput platforms, experimental units, observation systems, data processing and modeling platforms), and (2) an exceptional range of targeted research that feeds the research-innovation continuum.
Julien Denormandie, the French Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, visited the INRAE Occitanie-Toulouse center on Thursday, March 4.
He met Guillaume Martin, a researcher in charge of the transition of livestock farms to agroecology and their adaptation to global changes, accompanied by the prefect of the Occitanie region, Etienne Guyot, the mayors of the communes of Auzeville-Tolosane and Castanet-Tolosan, Sophie Bejean, president of the Occitanie academic region, and Pierre-Benoit Joly, president of the INRAE center and regional delegate.
Guillaume Martin adopts a systemic approach encompassing farms in their entirety, without trying to reduce their complexity. He is one of the first in the field of agronomy to develop a serious game, the Rami Fourrager®, to facilitate the adaptation of herbivore farms, particularly in their agroecological transition.
The visit continued with Nicolas Langlade (research director at LIPME) and Gilles Tison (head of the Field Crops Experimental Unit) with the presentation of the automated plant phenotyping facility which is unique in France: PHENOTOUL. From the greenhouse to the field, Julien Denormandie was able to observe one of its three platforms.
Finally, the French Minister of Agriculture paid tribute to "this agricultural world that innovates and recruits to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow" during the press briefing that concluded his visit to the center.
PhenoToul characterizes field crops (sunflower, cereals, corn, sorghum, soybean & peas), generates new knowledge in the field of plant sciences and meets the needs of laboratories and companies.