Postface - La Fabrique de l’agronomie, présent et futur pour l’Association française d’agronomie

Décrire l’évolution de l’agronomie depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale et en proposer une analyse par ceux-là mêmes qui l’ont à la fois façonnée et utilisée pour traiter les problèmes successifs auxquels l’agriculture a fait face, tel est l’objectif de cet ouvrage et le défi lancé par ses initiateurs. Au terme de la lecture de cette fabrique de l’agronomie, force est de constater que le pari est réussi. L’ouvrage restitue de façon très argumentée et pédagogique le double processus d’autonomisa..

Evaluation of the risks of contaminating low erucic acid rapeseed with high erucic rapeseed and identification of mitigation strategies

High erucic acid rapeseed (HEAR) oil is under increasing demand for various industrial applications. However, many growers are concerned that if they grow the crop, they will not be able to revert to other rapeseed varieties in the future due to the risk of erucic acid (EA) contamination of the harvested seed and inability to maintain acceptable erucic acid thresholds. This review considered published literature and, using the same criteria as that used to contain transgenic crops, aimed to identify the key risks of erucic acid contamination, broadly prioritise them and identify pragmatic mitigation options. Oilseed rape has a number of traits that increase the risk of low erucic acid rapeseed (LEAR) crops being contaminated with EA from HEAR varieties. The quantity of seed produced and the potential for seed dormancy coupled with partial autogamy (self-fertilisation) facilitate the establishment and persistence of volunteer and feral populations. The large quantities of pollen produced when the crop is in flower mean there is also a high potential for cross-pollination. Self-sown volunteer plants represent the highest potential contamination risk, followed by the presence of arable weeds (e.g., wild mustard) whose seeds are also high in EA. Other risks arise from the cross-pollination of compatible wild relatives and the mixing of seed prior to sowing. It is important that both HEAR and LEAR varieties are appropriately managed since risks and their potential for mitigation arise throughout the entire LEAR crop production process. The length of rotation, type of tillage, cultivar choice, buffer zones, effective weed management and basic machinery hygiene are all factors that can reduce the risk of erucic acid contamination of LEAR crops and maintain the required thresholds.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Socio-technical lock-in hinders crop diversification in France

International audienceCrop diversification is considered as a major lever to increase the sustainability of arable farming systems, allowing reduced inputs (irrigation water, pesticides, fertilizers), increasing the heterogeneity of habitat mosaics, or reducing yield gap associated with too frequent returns of the same species. To free up paths of collective action, this article highlights obstacles to crop diversification, existing at various levels of the value chains. We used a threefold approach: (i) a cross-cutting analysis of impediments to the development of 11 diversifying crops (5 species of grain legumes, alfalfa, flax, hemp, linseed, mustard, sorghum), based on published documents and on 30 interviews of stakeholders in French value chains; (ii) a detailed study (55 semi-structured surveys, including 39 farmers) of three value chains: pea and linseed for animal feed, hemp for insulation and biomaterials; and (iii) a bibliometric analysis of the technical journals and websites (180 articles) to characterize the nature of information diffused to farmers. We highlight that the development of minor crops is hindered by a socio-technical lock-in in favor of the dominant species (wheat, rapeseed, maize, etc.). We show for the first time that this lock-in is characterized by strongly interconnected impediments, occurring at every link of the value chains, such as lack of availability of improved varieties and methods of plant protection, scarcity of quantified references on crop successions, complexity of the knowledge to be acquired by farmers, logistical constraints to harvest collection, and difficulties of coordination within the emerging value chains. On the basis of this lock-in analysis, that could concern other European countries, the article proposes levers aimed at encouraging actors to incorporate a greater diversity of crops into their productive systems: adaptation of standards and labelling, better coordination between stakeholders to fairly share added value within value chains, and combination of genetic, agronomic, technological, and organizational innovations

Chapitre 2 - Évolution des approches, méthodes et outils de l’agronomie

Depuis 1945, le domaine de l’agronomie s’est étendu, ses objets d’étude se sont diversifiés et son bagage conceptuel s’est enrichi : le chapitre précédent a mis en évidence l’accroissement considérable de ce dont traite l’agronomie. Dans le même temps, ses démarches ont elles aussi fortement évolué, du triple point de vue des approches, c’est-à-dire des façons d’aborder et poser les problèmes, des méthodes, qui concernent les cheminements, processus et règles de raisonnement mis en œuvre, et..

Success and failure factors of crop diversification across Europe

The presentation is related to the results of a survey conducted i the frame of the project DiverImpacts. It concerns Rotation, Intercropping, Multiple Cropping in arable production. The aims of the analyse is a) to list the success and failure factors of experiences b) to understand connections between these factors and the main characteristics of Crop Diversification Experience

Documenting crop diversification experiences across Europe – the DiverIMPACTS Expert Survey

Survey was conducted with local experts (advisors, researchers, farmers, etc.) between Januar-April 2018 to document CDEs • Rotation, Intercropping, Multiple Cropping in arable production Aims of analyses: a) List of success and failure factors of experiences b) Understanding connections between these factors and the main characteristics of Crop Diversification Experience

Estimating the effects of Cry1F Bt-maize pollen on non-target Lepidoptera using a mathematical model of exposure

In farmland biodiversity, a potential risk to the larvae of non-target Lepidoptera from genetically modified (GM) Bt-maize expressing insecticidal Cry1 proteins is the ingestion of harmful amounts of pollen deposited on their host plants. A previous mathematical model of exposure quantified this risk for Cry1Ab protein. We extend this model to quantify the risk for sensitive species exposed to pollen containing Cry1F protein from maize event 1507 and to provide recommendations for management to mitigate this risk.A 14-parameter mathematical model integrating small- and large-scale exposure was used to estimate the larval mortality of hypothetical species with a range of sensitivities, and under a range of simulated mitigation measures consisting of non-Bt maize strips of different widths placed around the field edge.The greatest source of variability in estimated mortality was species sensitivity. Before allowance for effects of large-scale exposure, with moderate within-crop host-plant density and with no mitigation, estimated mortality locally was <10% for species of average sensitivity. For the worst-case extreme sensitivity considered, estimated mortality locally was 99·6% with no mitigation, although this estimate was reduced to below 40% with mitigation of 24-m-wide strips of non-Bt maize. For highly sensitive species, a 12-m-wide strip reduced estimated local mortality under 1·5%, when within-crop host-plant density was zero. Allowance for large-scale exposure effects would reduce these estimates of local mortality by a highly variable amount, but typically of the order of 50-fold.Mitigation efficacy depended critically on assumed within-crop host-plant density; if this could be assumed negligible, then the estimated effect of mitigation would reduce local mortality below 1% even for very highly sensitive species.Synthesis and applications. Mitigation measures of risks of Bt-maize to sensitive larvae of non-target lepidopteran species can be effective, but depend on host-plant densities which are in turn affected by weed-management regimes. We discuss the relevance for management of maize events where cry1F is combined (stacked) with a herbicide-tolerance trait. This exemplifies how interactions between biota may occur when different traits are stacked irrespective of interactions between the proteins themselves and highlights the importance of accounting for crop management in the assessment of the ecological impact of GM plants

Scientific Opinion on a request from the European Commission related to the prolongation of prohibition of the placing on the market of genetically modified oilseed rape event GT73 for import, processing and feed uses in Austria

Following a request from the European Commission, the Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA GMO Panel) evaluated the documentation provided by Austria to support the prolongation of the safeguard clause measure prohibiting the placing on the market of the genetically modified oilseed rape event GT73 for import, processing and feed uses in Austria. The EFSA GMO Panel assessed whether the submitted documentation comprised new scientific information that would change or invalidate the conclusions of its previous risk assessments on oilseed rape GT73. The EFSA GMO Panel also considered the relevance of the concerns raised by Austria in the light of the most recent data published in the scientific literature. The authorised uses of oilseed rape GT73 exclude cultivation, but data on gene flow, persistence and invasiveness derived from cultivation were considered as a worst case, representing conditions where exposure and potential impact are expected to be the highest, to assess possible environmental impacts resulting from seed import spills. In the documentation provided by Austria and in the scientific literature, the EFSA GMO Panel could not identify new scientific evidence that indicates that the import, processing and feed uses of oilseed rape GT73 in the EU pose a significant and imminent risk to the environment. The EFSA GMO Panel does not consider the occurrence of occasional feral oilseed rape GT73 plants, pollen dispersal and consequent cross-pollination as environmental harm in itself. In conclusion, the EFSA GMO Panel considers that, based on the documentation supplied by Austria and a review of recent scientific literature, there is no specific scientific evidence in terms of risk to the environment that would support the notification of a safeguard clause measure under Article 23 of Directive 2001/18/EC nor its prolongation, and that would invalidate its previous risk assessments of oilseed rape GT73

Risk assessment of new sequencing data on GM maize event MIR604

In 2009 and 2010, the EFSA GMO Panel concluded the assessment of genetically modified (GM) maizes MIR604, MIR604 × GA21, MIR604 × Bt11 and MIR604 × GA21 × Bt11. These maizes were found to be as safe as their conventional counterparts and other appropriate comparators with respect to potential effects on human and animal health and the environment. On 23 July 2015, the European Commission (EC) received from Syngenta new nucleic acid sequencing data on maize event MIR604 and updated bioinformatic analyses using the new sequencing data. EC tasked EFSA to analyse these data and to indicate whether the previous conclusions of the EFSA GMO Panel on the above-listed GM maizes remain valid. The EFSA GMO Panel used the appropriate principles described in its guidelines for the risk assessment of GM plants to analyse the received data. The new sequencing data indicated a single base pair difference compared to the sequencing data originally provided, located in a non-coding region of the insert. which had already been present in the original plant material used for the risk assessment. Thus, with the exception of bioinformatics analyses, the studies performed for the risk assessment remain valid. The new sequencing data and the bioinformatic analyses performed on the new sequence did not give rise to safety issues. Therefore, the GMO Panel concludes that the original risk assessment of event MIR604 as a single and as a part of stacked events remains valid