At the end of September, Joséphine Peigne participated in the 22nd conference of the International Organisation ‘Soil and Tillage Research Organisation’ to which she has been a member for many years and a board member since 2022. This organisation gathers researchers from all over the world on the themes of tillage and its impact on soil quality.
This event was hosted by the Virginia Tech University, state of Virginia, the United States.
During the week, Joséphine Peigné had the opportunity to present our work on Direct Seeding of spring crops under a rolled canopy in Organic Agriculture.
This work started in 2016 and keeps on going through various research projects . She also co-authored a work on visual soil observation and the use of dashboards as a tool for assessing agricultural practices on soil quality with agents from the Terres Inovia Technical Institute .
One day was devoted to an ‘agricultural’ tour to visit research stations, exchange with farmers and observing crops in the fields. This gave the opportunity to see typical crops of the region, such as cotton and peanuts (see picture), and soils of the area (see picture). In a nutshell, a good opportunity to discover the agriculture of Eastern Virginia!
This conference was also an opportunity to renew links with European (Denmark, Croatia) and South American (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay) research teams working on themes close to those of the AGE research team. As a follow up of this gathering, we will explore future teaching and research collaboration.