We work to promote an agroecological transition by making the most of natural processes. We also develop pioneer research link to perennial herbaceous plants.
Multi-services cover crops
Since 2009, different research on the integration of legumes into cropping systems as multi-services cover crops has been carried out. The legumes (or Fabaceae) are widely used in agriculture for their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen (through root symbiosis) and naturally enrich the environment with a mineral element that is often a limiting factor in agriculture. Our work in this field has focused primarily on forage legumes, which also play a role in soil protection and improvement.
We were particularly interested in winter cereals (mainly wheat – Triticum aestivum or barley – Hordeum vulgare) combined with a legume cover crop (clover, alfalfa, pea, faba bean, etc., alone or in mixtures). Our overall aim is to increase our understanding of how to use multiservice plant cover to promote the agroecological transition of cereal production systems. By this we aim to determine the extent to which cover crops can replace the use of external chemical inputs for plant protection, crop fertilization, and enhance weed management and soil health.
Our work in this topic clearly illustrates how we can promote an agroecological transition in agricultural systems by making the most of natural processes that can reduce or replace the use of agricultural external inputs. It should be noted, however, that these processes are considered as more difficult to control/predict by farmers. Farmers involved with us in experiments on those techniques stress the importance of changing their way of thinking, of being less in a permanent search for optimal performance and more in the acquisition of margins for error/maneuvering. Some insist on the relevance of aiming for a realistic and acceptable minimum performance, on the importance of considering the medium term, performance stability and system resilience. In this way, only pleasant surprises can be expected.
Perennial grains
The introduction of perennial herbaceous plants, progressively selected to improve grain production, makes it possible to offer permanent soil cover, forage biomass production complementary to grain production. Additionally, the restoration of ecological functions often altered by annual cropping systems due to the discontinuity of growth periods and chronic disturbances generated by tillage can be achieved.
Since 2016, ISARA has been working on the topic of “perennial cereals” as a new and potential lever for diversifying cereal and grazing systems. Our work focuses on the possibilities of using perennial relatives to straw cereals (wheat, barley, rye…), today mainly based on the case of the species Thinopyrum intermedium (Kernza ®).
Pioneer in this field in France, ISARA has been able to develop this work in collaboration with North American universities and institutes, as well as with Gembloux AgroBioTech in Belgium, and Arvalis-Institut du végétal, INRAE and the cooperative Oxyane in France.
Compared with other subjects studied at ISARA, the particularity of the “perennial cereals” topic is that it is a highly exploratory topic. No seeds are currently available from seed companies or cooperatives, and there is no associated market in France. Grain yields are very low (300-1500 kg/ha), and should more be referred to as “proto-cereals” rather than “cereals”. The great interest of this subject is to give life to research areas where we can take an interest in plants that are completely new and unknown to our agricultural systems, and think long-term.
NAPERDIV – Nature-based perennial grain cropping as a model to safeguard functional biodiversity towards future-proof agriculture
