The four multidisciplinary projects selected will involve 23 INRA researchers from five departments (Plant Health and Environment, Science for Action and Sustainable Development, Environment and Agronomy, Plant Breeding and Biology and Applied Mathematics and Informatics) working with a range of partners, including advisory services, educational facilities, cooperatives, technical institutes, Chambers of Agriculture etc.
As the SMaCH metaprogramme explains in a dedicated edition of its Information Letter, the plan is to boost the impact of research already supported by SMaCH on the sustainable management of crop health. It notes that research results often take the form of scientific papers or references for scientific evaluations, but they can also serve as a basis for designing tools for improving the management of crop health and, in particular, its sustainability. This will require specific work at the border between research and development, says SMaCH, and will also require joint working between researchers developing applications and stakeholders in the socio-economic world.
Of the projects, MYMYX Impact is aiming to share knowledge and co-design innovations based on mycorrhizal networks, which are key elements in soil biodiversity. SMaCH says mobilising these networks will allow for the exchange of different signals, defence stimulators and allelopathic molecules between plants, opening up new perspectives for the sustainable management of crop health, for example the association of companion or sentinel plants to promote preventive multi-pathogen bioprotection.
The MYMYX approach is to develop innovative strategies for the preventive management of crop health, including a game composed of a set of cards focusing on plants and agricultural practices, a question and answer board, a model and counters representing mycorrhizal filaments, hydro-minerals and soil pathogens. Based on interactions between farmers and researchers, the participatory research methodology has been tested in various workshops, resulting in a library of 150 innovative proposals in a variety of contexts. Following the strong interest expressed by participants and observers of the MYMYX workshops, two perspectives for the development of the training tool are envisaged: agricultural education and vocational training.
The FLADOLINK project will be sharing knowledge and transferring tools to better manage flavescence dorée (FD, pictured right) in grapevine and reduce its impacts. An initial project has characterised the risks of emergence or re-emergence following the transfer of phytoplasma from reservoir plants near vineyards such as alder, clematis and vines which have turned wild. This has led to pilot actions to prevent risk and combat the disease.
The new project has three objectives which will contribute to maintaining a dynamic of sustainable FD management. These include an advisory booklet for the management of vines which have turned wild. An initial version has already been produced and will be tested in a collaborative approach in two areas before an improved booklet is published and distributed on a larger scale. Secondly, the genotyping tests of the phytoplasma strains conducted during the first project will be transferred to laboratories accredited for FD detection so they can shared at the national level.
Thirdly, the regional scientific and technical results obtained and the resulting management tools (booklet, monitoring protocol, risk assessment and management processes) will be discussed in national workshops bringing together all the stakeholders involved in combating FD. These tools will be transferred to the whole chain through technical communications and will lead to changes in regulations and risk assessment processes with the aim of optimised FD management and the reduction of its socio-economic and environmental impacts.
The MoGeR project will be seeking to develop a user-friendly simulation tool to test varietal resistance management scenarios for phoma in oilseed rape (OSR). This is building on the epidemiological model already developed for phoma in OSR to test different management scenarios and provide recommendations on the durable management of resistance by integrating current knowledge and all the datasets available.
The first of the three objectives is to finalise and validate the model before moving on to the development of a transferable simulation tool. The aim is to provide a user-friendly simulation tool which can be used by a non-specialist public, in particular researchers who are not experts in modelling, to test new hypotheses concerning resistances, new management scenarios or to test the importance of poorly understood fungal life cycle parameters on resistance durability.
Finally, the project will lead to the development, with partners, of solutions for the concrete deployment of varieties over time and space, taking into account the external constraints of the agro-ecosystem being studied, and finally, to test the durability of these solutions.
The EPHYRULES project will seek to capitalise on the work of the ZINNLE and Repère projects, which led to the collective mobilisation of winegrowers in Alsace and a change in vineyard practices which led them to abandon herbicide treatments over 40 hectares of vines.
EPHYRULES will seek to produce collectively written agronomic and technical sheets on how to plant hawkweed, how to maintain it, how and when to plough etc. Indicators for tracking changes in practices will also be co-designed. The aim is to ensure the experience acquired by growers is shared to help others change their practices over a larger scale. This approach will be supplemented by the training of an adviser in changing practices in agro-ecological viticulture. EPHYRULES will also be seeking to bring on-board new stakeholders in order to co-construct innovative ground cover mixtures which do not compete significantly with vines in areas where water stress is an issue.
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