0000000000948570
AUTHOR
Fontanieu Gwaladys
Co-design and test of biodiversity-based pesticide-free Conservation Agriculture in the long-term CA-SYS platform in France
The French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) has established an ambitious experimental infrastructure (the CA-SYS platform) in autumn 2018 after 5 years of co-design with farmers, crop advisors and researchers. CA-SYS covers an area of 125ha divided into 42 fields. The originality of CA-SYS is that it is explicitly conceivedfor the design and evaluation of biodiversity-based and pesticide-free agroecological systems across agriculturallyrealistic scales. An agroecological system will comprise a matrix of fields of one (or a few) cropping systems over anumber of years interacting with adjacent semi-natural habitats (hedges, grass margin strips, flower strips). Thisspatio-te…
Weed dynamic in Conservation Agriculture: experiences from the Isite-BFC regional network of farmers and cropping system experiments on agroecology in France.
ISBN: 978-84-09-37744-2; International audience; Conservation Agriculture (CA) relies on three fundamental pillars: diversified crop rotation, permanent soil coverand no soil disturbance. Weed control relies on few tools because pre-sowing tillage, pre-emergence herbicidespraying and in-crop mechanical weeding are not possible. This could lead to drastic changes in weed communitiesand quickly after the transition to CA, with fewer annual species (weed seeds remain on the soil surface, a conditiondeemed to be unfavourable to weed germination) and higher perennial species. However, the implementation ofCA principles could be transcribed into a wide array of cropping systems because the object…