french national institute for agricultural research · tion in agricultural research and...

1FRENCH NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

Agricultural research has two main original features.Both in the laboratory and under real conditions, it studies a broadspectrum of biological, ecological, technical or socioeconomicphenomena or systems — ranging from the intimate mecha-nisms of living organisms, biogeochemical processes or populationdynamics to the functioning of landscapes and the biosphere; fromthe individual behaviour of actors to that of territories, industrialsectors and markets.

Consequently, it calls upon a vast range of disciplines1, mainlyfounded in the life sciences but also including environmental sci-ences, ecological engineering, ecotechnologies and biotechnolo-gies, as well as economic and social sciences. These characteristicslead it to acquire new knowledge and then assess its importance,propose appropriate trajectories for innovation and ensure that itbecomes generic. The use of model systems, however relevant theymay be, can be no substitute for this approach.

In order to respond to these global issues, agricultural researchmust more than ever make use of systemic approaches2. It is thusstrongly driven by four major challenges.

The first concerns the study of the changes of scales and organi-sational levels, such as those which lie at the heart of both inte-grative biology and research on ecosystems or those concerningterritorial dynamics.

The second challenge resides in the intrinsic complexity of the sys-tems studied: this is linked not only to the multitude of actors andfactors in play and to the wealth of regulatory and interacting net-works implicated in the structure and functioning of these sys-tems3, it also results from the diversity of their functions and theservices and performances expected of them. This situation is notradically novel, but developments in investigative skills and in theanalytical and digital tools available have contributed to revealingthis complexity, while at the same time providing new approachesto dissect and model it.

The need for stronger inter- and cross-disciplinary approaches isa third challenge, fashioned by separate but complementary logics:(i) by reorganisation of the disciplinary landscape that has resultedin the creation of new interfaces; e.g. between physics, chemistryand biology (cf. plant chemistry), between biology, informatics andapplied mathematics (cf. bioinformatics or systems biology), orbetween cell biology and nanobiotechnologies (cf. synthetic biolo-gy); (ii) by recognition (referred to above) of the complexity of the

phenomena studied, i.e. the need to take explicit account of numer-ous interactions and interdependences between their biological,physicochemical, technical or socioeconomic components; (iii) andfinally, by the need to develop approaches targeting action and thedesign of novel systems – for production, processing or the man-agement of natural environments — with appropriate propertiesand performance, and which involve the different actors and stake-holders involved as from the initiation of research.

Finally, in a context of uncertainty, the anticipation of future scien-tific and technological changes, the trajectories and possible fatesof societal contexts and the demands that may be placed uponresearch, is more than ever necessary. Enhancing the foresight skillsof the Institute thus supposes a commitment to two complementa-ry actions: (i) mobilisation of the Scientific Advisory Board so that itcan regularly analyse changes in the scientific context and placeINRA’s orientations in perspective relative to the emergence of newscientific frontiers or technologies; (ii) facilitation of the manage-ment of foresight studies which will inform on the possible futuresof food systems, agriculture and the environment and their con-nected areas (energy, urban development, etc.). Once again,national, European and international collaborative efforts will benecessary.

In parallel, the accelerated evolution of technologies in the life andenvironmental sciences are continuing to revolutionise the meth-ods used to produce knowledge.

These changes firstly affect the acquisition of data, the diversity andoutput of which continue to grow in a spectacular manner, thusposing new questions with respect to the management, sharingand analysis of data. Different tools are thus called into question:analytical and experimental platforms as well as informatics infra-structures; the databases and scientific information systems with-out which the massive generation of data would have no meaning;the design of methods for meta-analysis and generalisation of theiruse; the extension of partnerships and the mobilisation of scientif-ic skills and new techniques to enable capacities for data analysisthat will be sufficient to cope with the intensity of their production.

Secondly, modelling, necessarily included in an iterative processcoupled with experimentation and observation, is more than everessential to determine the behaviour of complex systems and toimplement the integrative approaches mentioned above. The cou-pling of models and data of different types is thus increasingly nec-essary: for example, the articulation of models and physical, biolog-

2 FRENCH NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

What are the scientific challenges faced by agricultural research?

ical, ecological and socio-technical data will thus be requiredincreasingly to enable the design, assessment and guidance of agri-cultural practices in a context of global change4.

Thirdly, the changes ongoing at present are of particular importanceto laboratory and observation technologies, on the one hand,and engineering on the other.Whether these concern biotechnolo-gies, nanotechnologies or sensors, etc., the former first of all consti-tute essential tools for researchers for the acquisition of knowledge;they also offer new pathways for innovation in plant breeding5,animal selection, the uses of micro-organisms or the processingand valorisation of biomass. In addition, engineering — consideredhere as the design, experimentation and assessment of novel sys-tems to meet the demanding requirements of sustainable develop-ment — is based on an ability to assemble knowledge, techniquesand know-how. Anticipation of the impacts of these technologiesand technical systems (for production, processing and the manage-ment of resources and the environment) and an understanding ofthe conditions under which they may be adopted by actors, is itselfone of the areas targeted by social and economic science research,and cannot be envisaged without its interactions with the differentstakeholders concerned (farmers, industry, consumers, environmen-tal associations, local government bodies, etc.).


1 Based on the distribution of researchers between its Specialised ScientificCommittees, the skills available within INRA at present can be brokendown as follows: life sciences (68%), environmental and processing sci-ences (12%), biotechnical disciplines (8%), economic and social sciences(8%) and digital sciences (4%). In terms of the quality and quantity of itspublications, INRA ranks second in the world in “Agricultural sciences”,according to the USDA. It shares the second place in “Plant & animal sci-ences” with University of California, Davis. But singularly when comparedwith its foreign counterparts, INRA is characterised by a balanced produc-tion in agricultural research and “Molecular biology & genetics”. INRA’smore modest ranking at present in the environmental sciences is nonethe-less compensated for by the marked growth (140%) seen during the pastten years (source: Essential Science Indicators of the WoS, analysis of cita-tions for 1999-2009).2 The debate on the new biology of the 21st century initiated by the USNational Research Council agrees with this analysis. See: A new biology forthe 21st century. 2009. Committee on a New Biology for the 21st Century:Ensuring the United States Leads the Coming Biology Revolution, Board onLife Sciences, Division on Earth and Life Studies, National Research Councilof the National Academies,The National Academies Press,Washington, D.C.3 Gene expression networks, signalling pathways, metabolic networks,trophic networks, meta-populations and meta-communities, social net-works, economic markets, etc.4 Neson et al. Climate change: impact on agriculture and costs of adapta-tion (IFPRI Washington, DC 2009).5 For example: the importance of innovations in plant production wasrecently emphasised again by the Royal Society of London (Reaping the ben-efits: Science and the sustainable intensification of global agriculture, 2009).

Figure 1: Sciences of the complex at the heart of agricultural research

DATA

Modelling

TechnologiesEngineeringInnovation

Anticipation

A systemic, integrative and multidisciplinary approach

The challenges of agricultural research

At the interface with environmental, engineering, informatics, economic and social sciences

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Observation Experimentation

As a result of discussions informed by numerous foresight analysesand supplemented by broad and participative consultation (Cf.Annex 16), INRA has chosen to focus on a limited number of prior-ities for the ten years to come (Figure 2). Of course, these choiceswill be reviewed, updated and adapted periodically in the contextof upcoming assessments by the different scientific divisions and bythe Institute as a whole7.

INRA has thus identified two particular scientific projects that focuson the interfaces between different disciplines.

The first concerns the development of predictive approachesin biology. Sometimes qualified as “predictive biology”, thisextension to integrative and systemic biology is based on thesystematic exploration of living organisms at different organ-isational levels, and on the growing openness of biologytowards modelling and digital sciences.These approaches willgenerate knowledge and methods that will benefit all areasof interest to INRA.

The second concerns agro-ecology. While recognising thatthe polarisation of research on action may require considera-tion of its interfaces with, and extensions towards, the eco-nomic and social sciences, it is the cross-fertilisation of eco-logical, agronomic and zootechnical disciplines that will betargeted in the first instance as a source of new concepts andinnovations. Particular attention will be paid to sustainablesoil management.

Anchored within the tripod of “food and nutrition – agriculture –environment”, five scientific challenges centred on major issuesfaced by society will drive the high priority research orientationschosen for the next ten years.

Integration of the economic, social and environmental per-formance of agriculture, livestock farming and forestry rais-es novel questions regarding the understanding, assessmentand modelling of these performances taken together. In acontext of renewed partnerships, this will lead to the designof new production systems that are explicitly embedded in acontext of sustainable development, mobilising advances inbiology, biotechnologies and agro-ecology.

In a context of food transitions of numerous origins, the devel-opment of healthy and sustainable food systems supposesthat food production sectors must be considered globally, fromthe production and development of foods to their consumption,including the fate of waste and losses. In-depth knowledge isalso required on all the biological and socioeconomic determi-nants and consequences of dietary behaviours, and on the rela-tionships between food, nutrition, prevention and health.

Attenuation of the greenhouse effect and the adaptationof agriculture and forestry to climate change require studyof the interaction cascades involved in the functioning of con-tinental ecosystems, notably in reaction to climate change, abroadening of the spatial and temporal scales studied andanalysis of the adaptive mechanisms in play. The design ofresilient agricultural, forest and aquacultural production sys-tems, and appropriate methods to manage natural resources,can be expected to result from these efforts.

The valorisation of biomass for chemicals and energy ismotivated by the need to develop new sectors based onrenewable carbon sources in replacement for fossil fuels. Thiswill be based on developing green and white biotechnologiesand biorefining, on identifying plant species appropriate forthese uses and on a circular economic logic, founded on asystemic analysis of the impacts of these new sectors.

The major challenge of global food security under the pres-sure of global change arises from the conflict between theobjectives of sustainable development on the one hand, andthe extent, conjunction and interdependence of crises andtransitions — demographic, dietary, environmental, relativeto energy or land use, etc. — both current or anticipated, onthe other. The integrative nature of this challenge is thusessential: a search for territorial coherence will thus be animportant objective. The globalisation of food, agriculturaland environmental challenges, and their increasingly closelinks with the challenges faced by other fields and sectors(demographics, economics, energy, health, urbanism,etc.) fur-ther increase the need for a systemic understanding.The het-erogeneity of local problems requires the consideration ofmultiple systems.

However, the importance of these challenges clearly exceeds thecapacities of a single research institution. Thus the application toregions other than developed countries8 of the research questionslinked to these different challenges will require INRA to reinforce itsnational collaborations, to become involved in European joint pro-gramming mechanisms and to develop alliances at an internation-al level.


What are the high priority questions for INRA during the next ten years?

6 Annex 1: An original approach to compiling the orientation document, based onbroad-based, participative consultations.7 International assessment of INRA: AERES Report (2009).8 INRA is working in practice on national sectors and territories, including those inthe Overseas Departments.

Context and objectivesThe conjunction of three major evolutions — a growth of investiga-tive capacities, with a scope ranging from the molecular level tothat of the living organism, or even populations and communities;the extraordinary increase in the rate of acquisition of genomic dataand the opportunities offered by the development of digital sci-ences and technologies — has revolutionised biology. (i) It hasenabled exhaustive and global approaches that favour moreintense dialogue between experimentation (or, in certain fields,observation) and modelling, and generates considerable masses ofdata. (ii) It has renewed the study of biological systems and theircomplexity, making it possible to consider scientific questions at dif-ferent levels: a large-scale approach to relationships between geno-typic and phenotypic variations modulated by the environment andthe multi-scale integration of underlying mechanisms; the study ofimportant interaction or regulation networks; an understanding ofthe links between biological, physical and chemical processes at thecellular and tissue levels. (iii) It has shifted cognitive, methodologi-cal or organisational challenges by reinforcing the pivotal role ofanalytical platforms, highlighting the mastery of phenotyping as amajor obstacle and considerably increasing the need for formalskills in the management and analysis of both data and modelling.(iv) With the development of approaches such as population orenvironmental genomics, these revolutions extend far beyond theframework of the biology of organisms and give rise to conver-

gences between disciplines (for example, between genetics andecology), around common tools and scientific objectives.

These changes concern INRA at numerous levels: they open theway not only to a clearer understanding of different phenomenabut also to the more efficient prediction of phenotypes; theyencourage the development of integrative biology which forms thebasis for the originality of the Institute’s contribution to the life sci-ences; they modify our view of model species and systems, and theyincrease capacities for direct research on systems of agronomicinterest.

Skills and areas of expertiseDuring the two previous Contracts of Agreed Objectives, INRAanticipated these profound changes by backing the development ofhigh-throughput biology and supporting integrative biologyapproaches.

Firstly, INRA became closely involved in the national system for thecoordination of infrastructures (RIO puis GIS IBiSA9), by basing itsefforts on a small number of platforms of national importance oper-ated by other institutions or, when more relevant, by investing inplatforms or resource centres that would be open to the wider sci-entific community. This policy resulted in regular and sustainedinvestments in major equipment, in the setting up of the NationalCommission for Collective Tools (CNOC) and in the accreditation of,


Two important and cross-disciplinary scientific projects1. Predictive approaches for biology

Figure 2: Priorities for INRA during the next ten years

Global food security and global changes

Life and environmental sciences, economic and social sciences

Integration of the economic, social and environmental performances of agriculture.Development of healthy and sustainable food systems.Attenuation of the greenhouse effect and the adaptation of agriculture and forestry to climate change.Valorisation of biomass for chemicals and energy.

Agro-ecologyPredictive approaches for biology

and support for, some twenty structuring platforms. Supplementedby long-term incentive support for the production of critical biolog-ical resources (sequencing, genotyping and the organisation ofgenetic resources), this has been extended since 2007 by supportfor the development of databases.

Secondly, based on the recommendations of its Scientific AdvisoryBoard (2005), INRA stimulated the development of integrative biol-ogy and modelling by mobilising complementary tools: pro-grammed incentive actions focused on animal, microbial and plantintegrative biology (agroBI programme, 2006-2008), collaborationsbetween INRA and INRIA teams (2008-2010) and the emergenceof research on complex systems (Scientific Interest Group: NationalNetwork on Complex Systems, 2006-2010); the recruitment ofAssociate Scientists on Contract and Young Scientist Contracts, andresearcher schools in integrative biology organised in collaborationwith the CNRS10 (2005, 2007). Backed by its different divisions andsupported by the commitment of teams to European or ANR11 proj-ects (BIOSYS, SYSCOMM and then “white” programmes), these dif-ferent actions enabled some units to acquire a strong position inthe field of integrative and systemic biology, and enabled INRA tocarry out high-profile (although numerically limited) actions in thefield of bioinformatics. More generally, and even though some het-erogeneities persist between both units and divisions, these effortshave contributed to laying the foundations for the changes towhich the Institute must now be committed.

High priority research questionsThe development of predictive biology has raised new researchquestions at the interface between biology, applied mathematicsand informatics.

Regarding the modelling of complex systems, two centralissues concern: the analysis, reconstruction and simulation ofinteraction and regulation networks and the morphogeneticprocesses that bring into play dynamic systems with adynamic structure and the links between biological, physicaland chemical processes;

Regarding integrative biology, the two main questions con-cern the massive combinatory exploration of correlationsbetween genotypes and phenotypes12 and the integration ofunderlying mechanisms at levels ranging from the gene to theorganism.

To address these questions, it is necessary to overcome the method-ological and technological obstacles of the management andanalysis of very large datasets, as well as the production itself ofthese data: the development of phenotyping strategies (definitionand ontology of the traits studied and metrology); access to novelimaging techniques for living organisms and to very high-through-put sequencing and genotyping platforms. At higher levels of inte-gration, efforts to improve epidemiological approaches, and thedesign of models that couple population dynamics and genetics,remain scientific priorities.

Actions proposed for INRA and extensions to national and international collaborationsAs well as integrating these high priority research questions in thestrategic plans for different divisions, two major programmes will beinitiated in 2010 and 2011:

the “Metagenomics of Microbial Ecosystems” programme,which in particular will try to establish links between very highthroughput structural and functional approaches and predic-tion and engineering in these ecosystems;

the “Animal and Plant Genomic Selection” programme,which will combine methodological research and some inte-grated projects focused on particular species, and include ananalysis of the transformation of different sectors induced bythe deployment of genomic selection.

The proposals made by the Institute with respect to dietary cohortsand green and white biotechnologies, in the context of the “Healthand Biotechnologies” part of the Investments for the Future pro-gramme, will also contribute to developing predictive biology andits applications at the food/health interface, or in the areas of agri-cultural production and bioprocessing industries.Thus developmentof the diversified phenotyping of major cohorts will enable the iden-tification of biomarkers for health and causal relationships betweendiet and health.

At the request of INRA’s central management, the ScientificAdvisory Board carried out a foresight study on “data managementand sharing”. Focused initially on genomic and molecular data, thisstudy is now likely to be extended to other fields (ecology and envi-ronmental sciences, agronomy, economic and social sciences) andit will give rise to proposals concerning, firstly, informatics infra-structures, skills, organisation, partnerships or ethical practices, andsecondly, research questions relative to the representation ofknowledge, the integration and large-scale analysis of data, datamining and meta-analyses.

Depending on an analysis that is still to be carried out, the strength-ening of systemic biology and its extension to synthetic biology maygive rise to some specific operations designed to structure facilitiesaround a small number of sites and lead teams and/or the initiationof a major programme. In terms of broader integration, modellingof the dynamics and functioning of populations and communitieswill be supported in the context of major programmes focused onadaptation to climate change and the integrated management ofplant and animal health.

Among INRA’s most important national and international partnersin this area, mention should be made of: INRIA13 and the BBSRCfor systems biology; CEA14 and the Beijing Genome Institute formetagenomics; international genomics consortia and the USDA-ARS and CGIAR15 for animal and plant genomic selection, respec-tively, and CNRS and ESFRI for data management and sharing.


2.Agro-Ecology

Context and objectivesIn a context of degraded or increasingly rare natural resources, ofsociety’s demands for a reduction in the use of plant health prod-ucts and veterinary medicines, of fluctuating trends in demand andupcoming modifications to the Common Agricultural Policy, it isnecessary to overcome the historical cleavage between agronomyand ecology in order to reinforce the conceptual bases of agricul-tural research, to develop its capacities for critical analysis and itsability to make useful proposals so that it can attain the quantita-tive and qualitative objectives of agricultural production under con-ditions, and using resources, that meet the criteria of sustainabledevelopment.

While in the past the prime objective was to reach maximum produc-tion potential, today more emphasis is laid on resilience in the faceof unforeseen events (economic, climatic or health, etc.) and ondevelopment synergies between agriculture and its environment.This supposes an extension to spatial and temporal scales and con-sequently more emphasis on broader levels of organisation (popula-tion, community, ecosystem, landscape). Ecology studies these levelsof organisation, but classically targets subjects that differ (ecosys-tems little affected by human activities and with a high degree ofbiodiversity) from those of agronomy. The first objective thus con-cerns the appropriation by agronomy of the concepts and meth-ods of ecology, and their application to man-made ecosystemsmanaged by agriculture and livestock farming. The applicationand/or adaptation of the laws of ecology to these particular systems,and their combination with agronomic knowledge, constitutes apromising area of research both in terms of its potential for academ-ic advances and its short and medium-term applications.

A crop or herd can be seen as a population whose genotype is par-tially controlled by domestication and which interacts with commu-nities of species assembled within the agro-ecosystem: macro- andmicro-organisms decomposing the soil, pests, auxiliaries, mutualis-tic or competitor organisms. The cultivated plot and its annexes

(borders, improvements, etc.) correspond to an ecosystem integrat-ed in a landscape. Agro-ecology thus supposes that account istaken of biological diversity at all its organisational and functionallevels so as to understand the dynamics of living organisms and itsrole in the ecological services rendered by agro-ecosystems, notablyin terms of productivity, and in the resilience of these ecosystems.The integration of knowledge on ecological processes at the scaleof a landscape mosaic requires the combined study of processes(biotic and abiotic), transfers and biogeochemical cycles as a func-tion of the spatial and temporal organisation of agricultural activi-ties and territories.

Many of the mechanisms involved in interactions between a land-scape matrix, farming practices, biodiversity and the functioning ofand services rendered by ecosystems, are poorly understood orhave not been quantified with sufficient accuracy. It is thereforenecessary for us to improve our ability to evaluate ecological serv-ices, anticipate their evolutions and master them.

Particular attention will be paid to the ecology and sustainablemanagement of soils (including technologies for the restoration ofsoils that have become unfit for cultivation). Indeed, at the humanscale, soil is a resource that it is difficult to renew, and its loss inquantitative (erosion) or qualitative (loss of organic matter, pollu-tion, salting, compaction, etc.) terms now appears to be rapid anda major concern. Furthermore, although the development of agro-ecology encourages greater focus on the biological and ecologicalfunctioning of soil so that we can better understand and manageagricultural production systems, our knowledge in this area is stilltoo limited.Analysis of the impacts of inputs and farming practiceson the quality and ecological status of soils and freshwater aquat-ic environments is thus an additional objective, which requires inparticular an increase in research on ecotoxicology.

The purpose of developing knowledge in agro-ecology and sustain-able soil management is to encourage the introduction of innova-tive farming systems that combine economic, social and environ-mental performance (cf. Scientific Challenge I).This will offer partic-ularly valuable support for methods to design and assess agricultur-al and sylvicultural systems, and for approaches designed to opti-mise the development of these systems at the scale of a landscapeor territory.

Skills and areas of expertiseINRA benefits from internationally recognised expertise in the studyof soil and the disciplines required in agronomy, livestock farmingand forestry (soil sciences, plant and animal sciences, bioclimatol-ogy, etc.). Until now, the ecological approaches developed by INRAmainly concerned environments that were little affected by humanactivities (forests, grasslands and aquatic environments).Two struc-turing operations during the period 2006-2009 contributed to ini-tiating agro-ecological research: in Avignon on “Integrated Fruitand Vegetable Production” and in Dijon on “Agro-Ecology of theCultivated Plot”. However, few studies have focused on ecologicalservices, restoration strategies or ecotoxicology.


9 RIO: Réseau Inter-Organismes (Inter-Institution Network); GIS IBiSA: Groupementd’Intérêt Scientifique: Infrastructures en Biologie, Santé et Agronomie (ScientificInterest Group: Biology, Health and Agronomy Infrastructures).10 CNRS: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (French National Centre forScientific Research)11 ANR : Agence Nationale de la Recherche (French National Research Agency).12 For example, in association genetics and genomic selection, in research on pre-dictive biomarkers through the coupling of genotyping, phenotyping andmetabolomics approaches in very large cohorts, or the interface between green andwhite biotechnologies to optimise the links between the structure of biomass andits biotransformation in a context of plant chemistry.13 INRIA: Institut national de recherche en informatique et automatique (NationalInstitute for Research in Computer Science and Control).14 CEA : Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (FrenchAlternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission).15 CGIAR: Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.

High priority research questionsIntegrative study of biotic interactions in agro-ecosystems The diversity and complexity of biotic interactions involvingcultivated plants and domestic animals need to be under-stood in a more integrated manner by focusing not only on“positive” interactions (complementarity, facilitation, nutrientrecycling, symbioses, pollination, parasitoid organisms, bene-ficial organisms, etc.) but also on “negative” interactions(competition, weeds, pests, etc.). Cultivation practices andlivestock management methods act on the life cycle onnumerous species present within an agro-ecosystem.Research will focus in particular on determining non-lineari-ties, threshold effects in the structuring of communities andtrophic networks and interactions with the physical environ-ment that can cause a loss of biotic regulation within agro-ecosystems. In return, efforts will be made to mobilise “posi-tive” biotic interactions, particularly in the context of produc-tion systems designed to achieve a high level of environmen-tal performance.

Agro-ecology of the landscapeAt the scale of a landscape mosaic, numerous spatial process-es condition the long-term fate of agro-ecosystems. Theseprocesses are affected by the intrinsic characteristics of theenvironment (topography, soils, hydrology, etc.) and by thespatial organisation of production workshops and connectedspaces that are little managed or not at all. Integrative studyof these spatial processes will notably enable an understand-ing of the economies of scope that can result from diversifiedproduction systems – whether this concerns a diversificationof land use, mixed-livestock farming or agroforestry – thatcould better utilise resources, encourage nutrient and carbonrecycling and enable high levels of biological diversity. Studieswill focus in particular on determining whether the character-istics of the landscape matrix can compensate for locallyintensive management methods.

Multicriteria assessment of agro-ecosystemsThe multicriteria management of agro-ecosystems in a long-termperspective that integrates arbitration between short and longterm timescales and gives importance to the properties ofresilience and adaptability, is another priority. Efforts will bemade in particular to advance knowledge on managementmethods that in the long term either reinforce or, on the contrary,limit, the maintenance of ecological services, whether these areservices in support of biotic regulation (pest control, ento-mophilous pollination, etc.), production services that contributeto farm income (stability of production) or non-commercial serv-ices (conservation of common biodiversity, water savings, soilcarbon storage). This approach will require methodologicaldevelopments regarding the quantification of ecological services,and will also include a socioeconomic dimension relative to inno-vation strategies and an adaptive management of agro-ecosys-tems that is designed to reduce uncertainties over time.

Sustainable management of numerous soil functionsThe aim will be to stimulate approaches that combine physic-ochemical (structure, composition, modelling of biogeochem-ical cycles), biological (soil microfauna and macrofauna,microflora, rhizosphere, microbial communities, ecotoxicolo-gy) and socioeconomic (study of practices, economic evalua-tion of ecological services, incentive tools for sustainablemanagement) methods. Emphasis will be laid on characteris-ing the different functions of soils and evaluating the ecolog-ical services they render (supply of both marketable goodsand ecological non-marketable services) and on takingaccount of long time steps (via Environmental ResearchObservatories (ORE), in particular). Priorities will also concernthe impacts of agricultural practices in terms of the transfer ofpollutants and xenobiotics, and the consequences for ecotox-icology linked to toxicology. Thus preference will be given tostudying combinations of pollutants and to methods for thediagnosis of ecological status and the restoration of soil qual-ity (including when they have become unfit for cultivation)and of freshwater aquatic environments.This research on thesustainable management of soil and water resources will inparticular target improvements to the control of the long-term cost-benefits and cost-efficiency of management proce-dures and of environmental risks.

Extensions to national and international collaborationsThe scientific challenge of agro-ecology will be taken up in the con-text of the “Agro-ecology and Soil” thematic group, managed joint-ly by INRA and CIRAD within the AllEnvi Alliance. It will also formpart of the research programmes of several Scientific Interest Groups(GIS) coordinated by INRA, with partners from different sectors.

At the European level, research in agro-ecology is being developedunder European FP7 programmes coordinated by INRA, such asREX16 ENDURE17 and the SOLIBAM18 project.At a more global level,this theme is being covered by the international “Agrobiodiversity”programme run by DIVERSITAS19.

Actions proposed for INRAAs well as work on this area included in the strategic plans of dif-ferent divisions, a major INRA programme on agro-ecology and theservices rendered by ecosystems will be entering its incubationphase. In addition, a regional approach to the theme of agro-ecol-ogy has already started with the identification of new clusters in theregions of Paris (Saclay–Grignon), Rennes (agro-ecology of thelandscape), Toulouse (agro-ecology and mixed farming systems)and Theix (agro-ecology of grazing-based livestock farms).


16 REX: Réseau d’Excellence Européen (European Network of Excellence)17 ENDURE: European Network for the Durable Exploitation of Crop ProtectionStrategies.18 SOLIBAM: Strategies for Organic and Low-Input Integrated Breeding and Mana-gement.19 http://www.diversitas-international.org/

Water, agriculture and continental ecosystemsWater is a major factor in the productivity and functioning of cultivated or natural continental ecosystems.In return, different land uses and farming practices have a considerable impact on water resources andaquatic environments in terms of both quantity and quality. Mastery of this situation implies the develop-ment of water-saving production systems and a reduction in pollutant emissions. It also means that agricul-ture must be associated with resource management systems that can regulate competition for use in a con-text of collective approaches to territorial development. Climate projections, European regulatory timetables,the growing intensity of water use conflicts in large parts of the world mean that the investment of agricul-tural research in these important challenges is a high priority.

INRA is contributing by taking the lead in French scientific output on water. These efforts will be sustainedin response to several of the scientific and thematic challenges described in this document. Integrative biol-ogy and plant selection (Scientific Project 1) and Agro-ecology (Scientific Project 2) should supply the cogni-tive foundations for the design of production systems that consume fewer resources, optimise resource val-orisation and contribute to the better ecological status of water bodies. The impact of unexpected hydrom-eteorological events, which are now occurring with increasing intensity and frequency (droughts, heavy rain-fall, catastrophic surface run-off and floods), is one of the principal factors driving ecological and socio-tech-nical adaptations to climate change. These adaptive processes will be one of the most important objectivesof Scientific Challenge III. A direct link can also be made with Scientific Challenge V, because of the crucialimportance of water and irrigation to global food security. An integrated approach to these issues will besupported by INRA in its proposals for the programmes of the “Territories and Natural Resources” ThematicGroup of the AllEnvi Alliance.

9

Context and objectivesDespite considerable advances in recent years, convergence of theeconomic, social and environmental performance of agriculturaland forestry practices and systems requires significant researchefforts to enable major changes to the functioning of these systems.The complexity of the dual insertion of agricultural and forestryactivities, both vertical (in the production, processing, distributionand consumption sectors) and horizontal (in territories and areas ofemployment and housing), must be taken into account. Majorchanges are necessary and should include the diversity of naturalresources and environments in which agriculture, livestock farmingand forestry are operated, as well as the variability of economic (via-bility of farms), social, regulatory and institutional contexts.

The principal objective of this challenge is thus to develop researchthat will contribute to defining practices, systems, sectors and agri-cultural and forestry territories that combine economic, social andenvironmental performance. Taking up this challenge will requirethe design with all actors of a new trajectory for scientific, techno-logical and organisational progress and transfer. The combinedmobilisation of numerous disciplines in the context of integratedand systemic approaches should not be limited to the spheres ofscience and research alone. This ambition requires a reinforcementof the Institute’s skills in research engineering, organisation andtransfer-development, at the same time as the cooperation of allpartners in the system for agricultural research, training and devel-opment (RFD).

Skills and fields of expertiseThis challenge concerns a large number of disciplines (biology,genetics, agronomy, ecology, economic and social sciences, mathe-matics and informatics, etc.) and thus many, if not all, of the INRAresearch divisions. In practice, the Institute benefits from recognisedexpertise in these different disciplines, and is desirous to explore abroad diversity of agricultural and production systems. However,these skills are often deployed for segmented research programmesand projects focused on distinct and insufficiently coordinatedscales of functioning. For this reason, several Scientific InterestGroups have been set up in recent years in the areas of both plantsciences (PICLeg20 for legume crops, GC-HP2E21 for arable crops)and animal sciences (Elevages demain).

High priority research questionsThe research priority is therefore to develop integrated and sys-temic analyses of practices, farms, sectors and agricultural andforest territories. These analyses will be of an integrative nature,taking full advantage of the breadth of skills available within theInstitute, in the context of projects developed jointly with all actorsand partners involved in both the questions addressed, themethodology, and the results anticipated. These analyses will be

systemic because the development of sustainable agricultural andforestry activities at the scale of farms, sectors and territoriesrequires that these entities be considered as a focus for the interac-tion of physical, biological, technical, economic and social process-es. This challenge will also open the way to more ambitious andlonger term research projects.

At present, an initial opportunity for the coordination of research isdeveloping through the design of integrated management strate-gies for plant and animal health which limit the use of planthealth products and/or veterinary medicines while remaining astechnically and economically successful as the protection meth-ods currently employed. Indeed, the protection of plants and ani-mals, the prevention of health events and the rapid and efficientmanagement of their effects if they occur, are three key elements ofsustainability, the importance of which will increase in view of first-ly, the growing globalisation of economies and trade, and second-ly, climate change. Without excluding the use of novel bioactivecompounds, studies will make use of predictive epidemiology inorder to optimise biological or ecological control methods, the cre-ation and management of spontaneous or induced resistance indifferent breeds or varieties and study of the spatial and temporaldiversity of products and production systems.

The contributions of the two scientific projects will also be impor-tant to meeting this challenge.

Thus in a transversal manner, and benefiting from INRA’s area ofexcellence, particular attention will be paid to the contribution ofgenetics to the sustainability of agricultural and forest systems.The potential for progress in science and innovation offered bygenomics, post-genomics, biotechnologies and predictive biologywill be exploited in order to take account of new and more numer-ous selection targets, to develop high throughput genotyping andphenotyping and ultimately to create new genetic materials thatwill contribute to the sustainability of agricultural and forestry sys-tems. Efforts in terms of genomic selection will focus in particularon: (a) taking simultaneous account of several traits in selection tar-gets, including aptitude for downstream valorisation, (b) the genet-ic control and variability of these traits, and (c) the analysis of geno-type-environment interactions in the diversified and fluctuatingcontexts of productive and environmentally-friendly agro-systems.

Alongside the efforts announced in the context of Scientific Project2, agro-ecology will also be mobilised with the dual objective ofunderstanding the functioning and management of man-madeagro-systems, including their dimensions in terms of territories andactors. Emphasis will notably be placed on aspects relative to inno-vations (design and adoption), the adequacy of productive and ter-ritorial structures in a context of sustainable development, the val-


Five scientific challenges focused on major stakes for society1. Integration of the economic, social and environmental performance of agriculture

orisation of environmental benefits (higher prices) by the marketand/or by taxpayers (public support policies), the role of agricultur-al advisors and systems for stakeholder organisation.

Extensions to national and international collaborationsThe research that needs to be developed in response to this the-matic challenge forms a natural continuum with the Grenelle del’Environnement (Environment Round Table) and its results, andwith the Ministry of Agriculture plan entitled “Objectif terres 2020:pour un nouveau modèle agricole français” (Towards a new Modelfor French Agriculture).

This research also finds its natural extension in the different FrenchScientific Interest Groups (GIS) (referred to above) that associateFrench partners in agricultural research, development and training,and in the Groups currently being set up (for vines and wine, fruitcrops and fish products). These vertical GIS (sectors) share the samegeneral objectives, which are to integrate economic, social and envi-ronmental performance, but they also have practical, operationalaims, i.e. the development, adoption and dissemination of innova-tions oriented according to the principles of sustainable develop-ment. They are all linked to the “Relance Agronomique” ScientificInterest Group, which has the triple ambition of ensuring the overallcoherence of research and development actions targeting therenewal of practices and agricultural systems, the pooling of data-bases and, more generally, knowledge in this field, and finally thedevelopment of appropriate training and advisory systems. Thisresearch will also benefit from the existence of two Scientific InterestGroups that target plant and animal genomics (GIS GENOPLANTE22

and AGENAE23, respectively), and from the wealth of infrastructures,facilities and tools for observation, experimentation and demonstra-tion operated by the Institute and its French partners (environmentalresearch observatories, experimental units, experimental farms, etc.).In this respect, efforts will focus on the European dimension for twopurposes; firstly, the openness of French facilities to European part-ners, and reciprocally, the use by French researchers of facilities inother Member States in order to broaden the scope of observation,experimentation and demonstration.

In addition to European and international collaborations driven bydifferent researchers and teams, it is mainly through the pro-grammes that target this challenge that INRA will be able to pur-sue its ambition as a leader in Europe (e.g. by continuing to coor-dinate the ENDURE network) and in the world (e.g. by participat-ing in the “Wheat Genetics, Genomics and Breeding” programmeof international agricultural research centres).

Actions proposed for INRAIn addition to the elementary disciplinary research that will be car-ried out by specific divisions in the context of their strategic plans,often interacting with others, three transversal, multidisciplinary,integrated and systemic programmes will contribute to taking upthis challenge: the first, launched in 2010, concerns the integrated

management of plant health, while the other two will be initiatedin 2011 and will concern respectively the integrated managementof animal health and genomic selection (animals and plants).A fish-farming programme is also under discussion with the CIRAD, IRD24,IFREMER25 and other actors in the sector.

2. Development of healthy and sustainable food systems

Context and objectivesFood systems to feed humans, defined as all production, trade, pro-cessing, distribution and consumption activities, are currentlyundergoing unprecedented change at the global scale that affectsboth developed and emerging countries. This revolution, whichincludes changes to food supply, consumption and their conse-quences in terms of health and quality of life, is particularly impor-tant because it has occurred so rapidly and profoundly and beenaccompanied by evolutions in human lifestyle and pathologies.Theunderlying causes and consequences of these changes are not yetfully understood.The complexity of food systems, their interconnec-tions with environmental factors and the consequences of globali-sation are another facet of this change. Their sustainability is beingcalled into question by global climatic and demographic changesand the availability of raw materials and energy.

The challenge is to describe and understand the evolution of foodsystems (causes, consequences and mechanisms) in all their dimen-sions and in a wholly integrated manner, so that opportunities forimprovement can be proposed that will favour the health and qual-ity of life of populations while complying with the principles of sus-tainability and with economic and societal constraints. For this rea-son, this challenge first of all involves health issues; notably the con-trol of health risks and the conditions necessary for a healthy dietthat will contribute to limiting pathologies linked to over-nourish-ment or malnutrition. Secondly, it involves challenges linked to theimpacts – and the dependence of systems – on the availability ofraw materials, water and energy, and the social importance ofaccess to food, characterised today by marked social inequalities.An approach throughout the food chain must be developed, linkedto issues concerning production systems. In geographical terms, thescope of these studies will correspond to the food systems of devel-oped countries; it may be informed by specific cases in emerging ordeveloping countries, depending on the collaborations that areestablished.


20 Scientific Interest Group on “Integrated Production of Legume Crops”.21 Scientific Interest Group on “Integrated Arable Production Systems with HighEconomic and Environmental Performance”22 Scientific Interest Group on “Plant Genomics”.23 Scientific Interest Group on “Analysis of the GENome of Farmed Livestock”.24 IRD: Institute for Research and Development.25 IFREMER: French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea.

Skills and areas of expertiseThe assets already acquired in terms of skills concern biological,economic and social approaches to dietary behaviour, but these arerelatively distinct and do not cover large population samples.Numerous expert studies are available concerning the physiology ofnutrition and the impacts of nutrients on the main bodily functions.However, study of the effects of the overall complexity of diet andfoods (composition, structure and matrix) on these functions is stilllittle developed. It is hoped that the metabolomics and metage-nomics of the intestinal microbiota, alongside genomics approach-es, will make a major contribution to progress in our understandingof the interactions between food and health. The science of foods,study of their properties related to the raw materials used, theirengineering and that of the different processes involved, providesolid foundations for the study of food supply, but integrativeapproaches, notably involving nutritional physiology, are still limit-ed. Few studies have been performed on the sustainability of foodsystems, but a foresight study carried out in collaboration withCIRAD is under way to identify high priority research questions.More generally, importance must be given to the combined mobil-isation of disciplines that target different aspects of both fooddemand and food supply, insofar as these two dimensions interactwith, and contribute to, each other.

High priority research questionsTo identify and master the characteristics of foods and thevulnerability of their production methods in order todesign products better suited to a changing environment.A knowledge of foods, and preparation methods that favournot only their hedonic, health, nutritional and environmentalproperties but also the economic characteristics targeted,must contribute to improving their adequacy for food transi-tions. Clearly, this development concerns not only healthissues but also access to food for populations suffering frominequalities. The priorities consist in:•Specifically studying the impact of food matrices on thecharacteristics of foods and their physiological effects, partic-ularly in the digestive tract.•Developing eco-design methodologies and innovations thatwill improve both the flexibility and robustness of processes,thus ensuring better accessibility and adaptation to environ-mental constraints.•Analysing and modelling the consequences of changes tothe characteristics of raw materials and to the functioning ofupstream markets (availability, modifications to inputs andtheir uses, price volatility, etc.) on the quality and availabilityof foods.


“Sector” and “species” groups at INRA:optimum interfaces for expertiseThe “Plant Sector Groups” and “Animal Species Committees” at INRA are discussion forums focused on the pro-duction sectors for plants (sugar beet, cereals, forage, fruits and vegetable, ornamental horticulture, oilseed andprotein crops, etc.) and animals (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits, poultry, fish and equines). They have permanentresponsibilities for watch, the mapping of skills, synthesis and foresight, and thus contribute to dialogue between,and agreements with, different partners. Made up of INRA researchers and engineers, these multidisciplinary groupsinclude plant or animal geneticists, physiologists and pathologists, agronomists or livestock specialists, technolo-gists and economists, and can also invite personalities from outside INRA from technical institutes or professionalorganisations. Depending on the socioeconomic and scientific contexts, and by generating overviews of the resultsof research and innovations produced by INRA, they contribute to the orientation partnership and enhance theInstitute’s mission relative to transfer and dissemination.

One major project currently under way is trying to analyse the environmental impacts of agriculture in terms of thetechnical solutions designed or studied by INRA, so as to improve the environmental performance of farms withoutjeopardising their viability or that of their sectors. The combined and synergistic functioning of study groups in theplant and animal fields provides an opportunity to address questions at the interface of several subjects (mixed farm-ing with livestock) and at larger scales (territorial dimensions). In the future, the role of these groups in the Institute’spartnership policy will be reinforced so that they can establish links with research structures (GIS, RMT26) and cap-italise on the discussions and findings of these groups (active library).

26 RMT: Réseau Mixte Technologique (Joint Technology Network).

•Analysing company strategies, organisational methods, thelocalisation of activities and public policies to adapt the archi-tecture of food systems to global change.

To study, understand and act on the determinants of food con-sumption.Food consumption results from interactions between thedemands of consumers and the supply of production systems.For this reason, any analysis of food transitions, their determi-nants and means of intervention, must focus simultaneouslyon these two facets and study their interactions. Priority mustbe given to:•Better understanding the mechanisms and determinants ofdietary changes.We must improve our understanding of con-sumer behaviour and practices (foods for weight-loss diets,uses, supplies, etc.) by focusing on and integrating social, eco-nomic, biological and psychological determinants.•Elucidating how different behaviours develop, the impact ofcultures, early learning and education, and the actions thatcan be taken to change these practices.•Studying the conditions for the appropriation of changes tofood characteristics.•Analysing the sources of losses and waste linked to differ-ent practices, and how they can be reduced through behav-iour and/or changes to supply.•Specifically studying populations suffering from inequalitiesand ageing populations.

To analyse and understand the causal relationships betweendiet and health.Environmental factors that impact human metabolism – andparticularly diet – are major determinants for the health andquality of life of populations. However, the complexity of therelationships between diet and health requires newapproaches that will involve the use of high-throughput andintegrative methods alongside the traditional methods usedby biology; one of the objectives is thus to determine, validateand combine novel biomarkers that are predictive of health,which forms part of the much broader field of predictive biol-ogy. To achieve this, it will be necessary to:•Participate, coordinate and, if necessary, set up longitudinalcohort studies that include biological, socioeconomic andenvironmental characterisations in order to lay the founda-tions for an integrative approach.•Develop biobanks and biomarkers that are relevant not onlyat the largest scale (population) but also at the smallest scale(finesse of biological genotyping).•Assess the biological effects and health risks and benefits(toxicological, microbiological and nutritional) of consumingdifferent foods, considered at different scales (restricted diets,foods, nutrients).•Identify any transmissible metabolic effects and the socioe-conomic determinants of dietary behaviour and health.•Alongside events linked to over-nourishment (plethora),study malnourished populations and the impact of specific

diets on target populations (vegetarian diets and otherrestrictive or exclusion diets).•Finally, integrate advances in knowledge of the metage-nome of the intestinal microbiota in the phenotyping of pop-ulations and seek to determine specific relationships withhealth.

Extensions to national and international collaborationsAt a national level, longstanding collaborations with INSERM27 willbe reinforced by integrating these questions in the Multi-AgencyThematic Institute (ITMO)28 on “Circulation, metabolism and nutri-tion” which is part of the AVIESAN Alliance. Covering these areasin the “Food and Nutrition” thematic area of the ALLEnvi Alliancewill facilitate additional academic collaborations. Bilateral or eventrilateral arrangements in three high priority areas, already underway with the WUR29 (Netherlands) and IFR30 (UK) will be pursued.But particular efforts will be made regarding European multi-insti-tution developments linked to new instruments (JPI, KIC) and as anextension to our contribution to the “Food for Life” platform.As forpartnerships with industry in France, these should increase thanksto the “Qualiment” portal31 set up on the subject of the nutrition-al and sensory quality of foods, and should operate in a way simi-lar to the Instituts CARNOT.

The consolidation and structuring of facilities (cohorts, platforms,CRNH32 and clinical centres) in support of research work on therelationships between food and health will be favoured, linked toregional (campus), national (SNRI) and international dynamics. TheEuropean and international leadership of projects on the metage-nomics of microbial systems in the digestive tract will be pursued.

Actions proposed for INRATwo strategic programmes for INRA concern this challenge: (i) “TheMetagenomics of Microbial Ecosystems” programme linked to thescientific project on predictive approaches for biology, and moredirectly (ii) “The Determinants and Effects of Dietary Behaviour”programme, scheduled for 2011. It should soon be possible todefine a programme devoted to sustainable food systems, coveringthe food chain in a more general manner and based on the conclu-sions of the foresight study that is currently under way (duALIne33).


27 INSERM: Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (French NationalInstitute for Health and Medical Research)28 ITMO: Instituts Thématiques Multi-Organismes (Multi-Agency Thematic Institutes).29 WUR : Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre).30 IFR : Institute of Food Research.31 http://www.qualiment.fr/ .32 CRNH: Centre de Recherches en Nutrition Humaine (Research Centre on HumanNutrition).33 DuALIne: INRA-CIRAD workshop on sustainable food supply systems: “DUrabilitéde l’ALImentation face à de Nouveaux Enjeux” (Sustainability of Food Supplies facedwith New Challenges).

3.Attenuation of the greenhouse effect and the adaptation of agriculture and forestry to climate change

Context and objectivesAgriculture contributes about 14% to global greenhouse gas (GG)emissions. Agriculture and forestry also play an important role invariations in carbon stocks in the soil and above-ground biomass.Between 1990 and 2005, French agricultural GG emissions fell by11%, and the sinks related to land use markedly increased. Theagriculture and forestry sectors made a more than proportionalcontribution to reducing total emissions in France, but we cannotbe sure that this trend will continue. It is therefore necessary to rein-force research on reducing the contribution of these industries tothe greenhouse effect.

The 2007 report by the IPCC35 indicated a rise in temperatures thatwould remain moderate (at around 2°C) during the current centu-ry if global GG emissions were reduced between now and 2015,but this rise would exceed 4-5°C if current trends continued. Thisglobal warming would be accompanied by an increase in climatevariability and in the number of extreme climatic events (heat-waves and summer droughts, intense winter rainfall and storms),the impacts of which are likely to be accentuated during the nextfew decades. A cascade of repercussions needs to be envisagedwith respect to the effects of climate change on land use, waterneeds, soil quality, pest pressure, input and energy requirements,and on the origin, quality and typicality of products, analysing inparticular the adaptations and retroactions needed with respect toGG emissions, natural resources and biodiversity, and finally theconsequences this would have for food production.

Climate change will interact with other changes and pressures onagro-systems (increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, atmos-pheric nitrogen deposition, the introduction of new species,changes to land use and agricultural practices, etc.). It is thereforenecessary to study the combined effects of these different modifi-cations. In addition, adaptive strategies will generate external costs(positive or negative) that must be clarified.

This scientific challenge can be broken down into four complemen-tary objectives:•knowledge of GG emissions and absorption by agriculture andforests,•study of the potential to attenuate greenhouse gases andincrease carbon storage in these sectors,•analysis of the impacts of climate change and increased climaticvariability,•study of the adaptation of agriculture and man-made ecosystemsto climate change.

Short marketing channels:a growing demandConvergences in the evolution of food consumption modelsthroughout the world means it is possible to establish threedimensions (temporal, spatial and technological) that sepa-rate the consumer and foods. In parallel, “new” consump-tion behaviours are developing; although they remain mar-ginal at a quantitative level, they constitute an emergingpolitical approach in numerous countries, notably at the scaleof regional government. These new food consumptionbehaviours take different forms: organically-farmed products,associations in support of the maintenance of peasant farm-ing (AMAP34), or short marketing channels, both in Franceand following a similar trend in other countries. Their com-mon characteristic is that according to different methods,and to different degrees, they reflect the need of at least partof the population to “resume responsibility” for their diet.These new food consumption behaviours correspond to newtypes of supply of agri-food products which, in most cases,reflect a desire to implement more environmentally-friendlypractices and low-input systems, including with respect totransport and marketing. These new commercialisation andproduction modes question agricultural research at many lev-els, from the analysis of determinants for new consumptionbehaviours to the development of varieties and species thatare adapted to these specifications. As an example, INRA iscoordinating the European SOLIBAM research programmewith 22 public and private sector partners, involving tenEuropean countries, two African countries and an interna-tional research centre. The aim is to improve the performanceof organic farming relative to yield and sustainability, cropdiversity and product quality. More generally, these evolu-tions require multidisciplinary research efforts so that supplyand demand aspects can be integrated in coherent analyticalframeworks that will broaden the partial vision of researchfocused on a particular obstacle.

34 AMAP : Association pour le maintien d’une agriculture paysanne (Association for the Maintenance of Peasant Farming)

14

Skills and areas of expertiseAt present, research on climate change is mainly focused on themechanisms of greenhouse gas emission or absorption and on theimpacts of climate variability and change. By comparison, relativelyfew studies have addressed the issue of adaptation to climatechange, the external costs induced and the costs and benefits ofadaptation.

High priority research questionsTo take up this challenge, efforts during the next ten years mustconcern a relatively broad range of research regarding:

Knowledge of carbon and nitrogen cycles and the quantifica-tion of GG emissions and absorption by agriculture andforests;

Potential for the attenuation of GG emissions and for increasedcarbon storage in soils and forests;

The development of methods to estimate the GG balance andthe carbon footprint of agricultural production systems;

The development of strategies to manage the risks and oppor-tunities associated with changes to climatic variability andextremes;

Assessment of the regional impacts of climate change on agri-culture and man-made ecosystems;

An understanding and mastery of the effects of climate changeon the dynamics of biodiversity (areas of distribution, geneticresources, interacting species, communities) and on the func-tioning of and services provided by ecosystems;

Effects on the quality of agricultural products and their com-patibility with criteria fixed downstream (technological apti-tude);

The adaptation of cultivated or domestic species, agriculturalpractices, production systems and sectors to modifications tothe climate and to the composition of the atmosphere;

The development of innovative technologies and/or systemsand new sectors;

Identification of the costs and benefits of measures to enablethe adaptation and definition of collective modes of organisa-tion in the face of climate change;

The interactions and synergies that need to be found betweenattenuation of the greenhouse effect and adaptations to cli-mate change.

Extensions to national and international collaborationsThis scientific challenge constitutes an extension to the ANRForesight Workshop “ADAGE36”, led by INRA, and the thematicgroup on “Global and Climate Change” of the AllEnvi Alliance.Theaim is to structure the research undertaken in the context of sever-al ANR projects coordinated by INRA (notably projects supported bythe ANR “Vulnerability, Environments, Climate and Societies” pro-gramme and a dozen or so European projects under FP7). The

European Joint Programming Initiative on “Agriculture, FoodSecurity and Climate Change”, the secretariat of which is assuredby INRA and the BBSRC, will amplify the actions undertaken in thecontext of this challenge.

At an international level, this scientific challenge will be reinforcedby the Global Research Alliance regarding the attenuation of green-house gas emissions by agriculture (initiated by New Zealand andfor which INRA is jointly leading a working group). Furthermore,links have been established with agricultural research institutionsfor development in the context of the “Challenge Programme onAgriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)”, the future “Mega-Programme” on climate change backed by the CGIAR.

Actions proposed for INRAIn addition to the work carried out in the context of divisionalstrategic plans, a programme on “Adaptation to Climate Change byAgriculture and Forestry” will be starting in 2010. A project on theattenuation of greenhouse gas emissions and on carbon sequestra-tion in the agriculture and forestry sectors will be entering its incu-bation phase.

35 IPPC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change36 ADaptation au changement climatique de l’AGriculture et des Écosystèmesanthropisés (Adaptation to Climate Change by Agriculture and Man-made Ecosystems)

4. Valorisation of biomass for chemicals and energy

Context and objectivesBoth developed and emerging countries are confronted by fourmajor and connected challenges: (i) to control, limit and reducegreenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere; (ii) to developproducts that will replace fossil hydrocarbons (and their deriva-tives), the reserves of which, for a given cost, are limited and willbecome increasingly rare; (iii) to contribute to the development ofbio-agro-industry and new value chains, and (iv) to improve energyindependence at the regional scale.

The concept of sustainable development means that it is possibleto address the necessary changes to industrial systems that willmeet our basic needs in terms of habitat, clothing, hygiene andtransport, the expression of which depends on the level of develop-ment. Renewable carbon is the recurrent theme of this challenge,and its changes in chemical state form an important part of a cir-cular economy at both the global and regional scales. The globali-sation of trade means that we must consider not only all potentialsources of biomass but also the dissemination of technologies.

The scientific challenge is to develop the green chemistry ofrenewable carbon which must be articulated with complementaryand competing natures of different land uses (agricultural and for-


est land) and the need to preserve ecological equilibriums.The issueof bioenergies and green chemistry goes far beyond simply increas-ing the volumes of biomass available for use by existing technolo-gies, the sustainability of which still needs to be proven.

Skills and areas of expertiseCurrent skills cover the fields of green and white biotechnologies,structural biology, mixed production systems (dual purpose: foodand green chemistry) and those dedicated to biorefining and moregenerally to process engineering.Activities in this area remain insuf-ficiently developed when set against the opportunities opened upby both the recent findings of biology and the uses that are nowtechnically possible for products derived from renewable carbon.Finally, these efforts do not sufficiently integrate the knowledgegenerated by the different disciplines concerned – which can rangefrom the biological sciences to social sciences – to obtain a clearerunderstanding of these new systems, and to identify interrelationswith food and energy systems. A particular problem is the need totake account of new temporal and spatial scales in order to meetthe demands of sustainability and – because of the globalisation oftrade – to meet local needs in the context of carbon cycles. It willtherefore be necessary to go beyond assessing the effects of tech-nological systems on their specific characteristics to consider theconsequences they are likely to have in the more or less long termwith respect to other objects or systems.

High priority research questionsThe first area concerns the concepts and tools of green andwhite biotechnologies, in order to design high-perform-ance and specific methods and technologies for use in asustainable context. The priorities are:

•to generate more knowledge on biosynthesis pathways,their regulation, associated physicochemical mechanisms andmetabolism (transport, targeting and storage), particularly forstorage substances (oils, sugars) and lignocellulosic cell walls,including morphological aspects, and more data on theeffects that will result regarding the major physiological func-tions of plant growth and development;•to understand the factors that limit biomass and lipid yields,which goes back to the general issue of integrative biology;•to develop tools for high-throughput structural and func-tional phenotyping; these will be essential if we are to bene-fit from the opportunities offered by advances in genomics;•for micro-organisms, to develop synthetic biology andnanobiotechnologies as exploratory fields of interest.•It is in this area that new approaches which call upon high-throughput methodologies and linked to the “Predictiveapproaches for biology” project, are anticipated.

The second area concerns the study of plant species adaptedto the production of biomass on all agricultural land, includ-ing that currently neglected (derelict land, etc.). The targetspecies for temperate countries are straw cereals, oilseeds

(rapeseed, linseed, sunflower), ligneous plants (poplar, Robinia,pine, eucalyptus). These studies need to be broadened to phy-toremediation, which has the dual advantage of increasingpotential agricultural land areas and solving local pollutionproblems. The priorities are:

•to implement holistic approaches to all plant species andtransformation processes in order to design more sustainablebiorefineries that can use plants with optimum qualities forprocessing as well as agricultural yields. In this context, it isimportant to optimise the performance of complementarybiotechnological (enzymes and fermentation) and physicaland chemical (fractionation agents) processes in order tomeet the need for products, molecules and bioenergysources. The breaking down of plant organs by biorefineriesneeds to be reviewed in order to preserve plant structuresand the functionalities of bioproducts at the correct scale andfacilitate their subsequent valorisation for technical uses;•to transpose the knowledge acquired on the metabolism ofplant minerals and lipids to other biological systems of inter-est (micro-algae, cyanobacteria);•to better understand species that can grow on derelict landand be used for food purposes;•to develop databases that constitute an inventory of plants(cultivated or not) that can produce molecules (precursors) ofinterest, with systematic phenotyping of these plants and aninternational structure for biological resources that can bemobilised as a function of local conditions.

The third area focuses on agricultural and forest productionsystems and technological and use systems in the contextof a circular economy. Energy and chemical production sys-tems involve different steps that maintain multiple relation-ships between each other and with other sectors (notablyfood) and with the environment: no independent, sectorialapproach is possible, even for second generation biofuels.Theconsequence is that these complex systems cannot be opti-mised by simply adding operations that have been separate-ly optimised.The innovations expected are firstly of an organ-isational nature, and will be based on tools to analyse theimpact of innovations before they are introduced. The priori-ties are:

•to ensure that the needs of the chemicals industry corre-spond to the resources offered by biomolecules, based onstructure versus use function relationships, assembled in theframework of a knowledge management tool initiated by theANR foresight workshop VégA37,•to constantly update foresight, initiated by Véga, in order toidentify both future systems at equilibrium and the transi-tions that will enable this achievement;•to identify and rank critical points, and notably those whichconcern the technical mastery of production, control of the sec-tor, adaptation to the environment and spaces, environmentalservices associated with the sector and the different environ-


mental impacts that may result: soil (organic matter, fertility,erosion), water, greenhouse gases, biodiversity, resources nec-essary (nitrogen, energy, etc.) and competitiveness;•to develop methodologies for eco-design and ensure that theassessment methods used (multicriteria tools, life cycle analy-ses) are adapted to specific or mixed systems, to contribute tothese new sectors by extending the agricultural land availablefor biomass production, to ensure the diversification of land-scape mosaics, and to design governance methods and publicpolicies in support of integrating these systems in regionalisedsectors (associations, mosaics). Criteria for the labelling ofproducts will be proposed in order to contribute to developingthe regulations that will underlie a bio-economy;•to analyse company strategies, including with respect tointellectual property, organisational methods, the location ofactivities and public policies to adapt the architecture of ener-gy and chemicals systems in harmony with food systems andecological equilibriums. It is necessary to take account of inter-national scenarios to ensure the representativeness of thesestudies, combining issues of technical and economic feasibility,ecological sustainability and social acceptability. It will thus bepossible to understand the effect of changes to technical inno-vations on the “economic machine”, and how economic reg-ulation might hamper the dissemination of innovations;•to ensure the hybrid modelling of sustainable sectors in anopen platform, combining: (i) the insertion of bioproducts incurrent energy and chemicals production systems, with therecycling of products (plastics) and the valorisation of waste; (ii)economic parameters such as the availability of capital, levelsof domestic demand and relative pricing systems; (iii) individ-ual and collective behaviour with respect to consumptionstyles, urban living and territorial development, withoutneglecting the opinions of citizens, and (iv) the nature of sys-tems at the local, national and global scales, the availability ofland, degrees of autonomy and interdependence and the mar-gins for manoeuvre allowed by the inertia of current systems.

Extensions to national and international collaborationsAt the national level, integration of these questions in the ANCREand AllEnvi Alliances provides an opportunity to combine strongand complementary skills with those available within INRA.

Partnerships with industry will be developed thanks to the“Bioénergies, biomolécules et biomatériaux végétaux du CArboneRenouvelables (3Bcar) (Bioenergies, Biomolecules and PlantBiomaterials for Renewable Carbon) portal, operation of which willbe based on that of the Instituts Carnot, with the objective ofaccreditation in the short term.

This corpus of research will be based on selective research efforts inthe disciplines present at INRA, as well as involving close collabo-rations with other French higher education and research institutions(CNRS, CIRAD, IFP38, INSAT39,AgroParisTech, Montpellier SupAgro,

etc.).As a corollary, clusters with high international visibility will beproposed in response to different calls for proposals by theInvestments for the Future initiative.

At the international level, CIRAD should be a strong partner bothregarding an understanding of the equilibriums to be soughtbetween developed and emerging countries, and to extend knowl-edge to sugar cane, sorghum, oil palm and cotton in tropicalregions.

Actions proposed for INRATwo areas of study to be targeted by different INRA divisions con-cern this challenge: (i) synthetic biology and nanobiotechnologiesand (ii) the sustainability of systems based on renewable carbon.

Regarding the Investments for the Future programme, two propos-als on green and white biotechnologies will be developed jointly inthe context of broadened and renewed partnerships, and participa-tion is envisaged in Institutes of Excellence on renewable energy. Inrecognition of the need for technological research as described inthe Juppé-Rocard report, partnerships with industry need to bebased on pilots and demonstrators. These will undoubtedly raiseresearch questions that require study, and will enable the restrictionor validation of models developed at the scale of the laboratory,field or pilot. Because of the relative importance of the findings spe-cific to this theme, and in light of their strong prospects for devel-opment, investment in Research-Training-Transfer will be an optionto be explored.

37 ARP VégA: “Quels Végétaux et systèmes de production durables pour la bio-masse dans l’Avenir ?” (Which plants and sustainable production systems for bio-mass in the future?)38 IFP (French Institute for Petroleum): IFP Energies nouvelles (new energies)39 INSAT : Institut National des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie (NationalInstitute for Applied Sciences and Technologies)

5. Global food security and global change

Context and objectivesIn the context of the global challenges of the 21st century, recalledbriefly at the beginning of this document, world agricultural sys-tems will be required to produce more and in other ways, and notonly other products (marketable goods and services to ecosystems).Food systems will have to enable more consumption (where under-nutrition prevails) and of better quality (in cases of malnutrition). Forthis purpose, major changes from the past are necessary in termsof research and innovation, individual consumer behaviour, thestrategies of private enterprises and government policies.

This growing demand in an uncertain context will also require INRAto intensify its efforts in terms of anticipation, understanding andproviding information for public decision-makers, economic actors


and civilian society: the pursuit of foresight and collective expertisestudies, the development of targeted studies similar to “EcophytoR&D”, the renewal of dialogue with stakeholders on differentresearch themes and a review of policies on the dissemination andcommunication of the results of its work to public and private deci-sion-makers and the general public.

This situation also means that the research carried out under thetwo scientific projects and the four scientific challenges must beplaced in the systemic and global context of food, agricultural, ener-gy, environmental and social challenges at the scale of our planet.It will also lead to the proposal of a fifth challenge; i.e. the devel-opment of dedicated research with the general aim of generatingcertified knowledge on global food and nutritional securityassessed in all its different dimensions and in relation to other plan-etary challenges.

Skills and areas of expertiseINRA benefits from numerous and reputed skills in this disciplinaryarea which must be mobilised at the service of global food securi-ty by providing scientific expertise in the three areas of agriculture,food and nutrition and the environment, and at their interfaces, andby carrying out systemic and multidisciplinary research on the close-ly intertwined issues of agriculture and different types of land use,diet and lifestyles, energy and energy consumption modes, andfinally the environment and the management of natural resources.However, it is clear that the Institute will not be able to achievethese ambitions on its own. Collaboration with other disciplinesthat are not present in-house; for example with climate or energysciences, geography or urban planning sciences, and with othernational and international institutions, is essential. Nevertheless, inview of INRA’s targeted missions, the aim is not to develop agricul-tural research for development, or more specifically for eponymouscountries.

High priority research questionsThe first priority is to endow the Institute, its partners withinAgreenium and more generally the French scientific commu-nity with an ability to understand, analyse and model thequestion of global food and nutritional security in connec-tion with other planetary challenges. As well as pursuingthe CIRAD-INRA foresight project “Agrimonde” on futurefood and agricultural systems for the world at the horizon of2050, research efforts will focus in particular on: (i) couplingbiophysical, biotechnical and economic models that will nec-essarily integrate aspects external to the sphere of food, agri-culture and forestry alone (climate change, supplies of anddemands for different types of energy, urbanisation dynamics,etc.), (ii) the geographical nesting of models developed at dif-ferent spatial scales, (iii) the integration of innovation, conti-nuity and/or change dynamics, (iv) taking account of uncer-tainties, risks and the behaviours of actors faced with risk,and (v) the explicit modelling of public policies. It is within this

framework that it will be possible to adopt a coherentapproach to questions such as: (a) the breakdown of landbetween food and non-food crops, grasslands, forests, wetzones and urban areas, (b) the intensification and extensifica-tion of agricultural and forestry practices, (c) the role of ani-mal production, (d) changes to food systems and consump-tion patterns, (e) changes to the energy and/or chemicals con-texts, (f) losses and waste at different stages of production,processing, distribution and consumption, and (g) the inter-national trade of agricultural, agri-industrial and agri-foodproducts.These approaches will involve both biotechnical sci-ences and human and social sciences. They will also requiremethodological developments in informatics, mathematicsand statistics, together with investments and collaborations inorder to acquire the necessary data and information systems.

The second research priority concerns indicators for sustain-able development and methods for impact assessment.Indeed, any analysis of future food and agricultural systemsat a global level in the three dimensions of sustainability willrequire knowledge and an explicit representation of the phys-ical, biological, economic and social processes to whichresearch developed in the context of the aforementionedprojects and challenges can contribute.This also supposes theavailability of robust and reliable methodologies to assess theimpacts of processes and their evolutions, once again in threedimensions: economic, social and environmental. For this pur-pose, research efforts will focus in particular on: (i) indicatorsfor sustainable development, (ii) multicriteria analyses(notably their aspects relative to the aggregation, weightingand potential incompatibilities of different criteria), and (iii)methods to assess the impacts of physical, biological, socialand/or economic processes (with particular attention to themethodology used for life cycle analyses (LCA) in order toexceed certain limits).

The third research priority aims to analyse the territorial con-sequences of global changes and, inversely, to study thedynamics of territorial development and their interactionswith global evolutions. Particular attention will be paid to: (i)the impacts of global changes on the economic performanceof agricultural and forestry activities, on upstream and down-stream industries, on the prospects for the diversification ofincome resources for farms (multiple activities by farming andforestry households, demand for local products, supply ofnon-food goods, supply of ecosystem services, etc.), on evo-lutions affecting the farming profession and the demands ofpermanent or temporary residents in different regions (localagricultural products, public and private services, etc.); (ii) theroles of agriculture, forestry and the agri-food industry in thedynamics of territorial and regional development in the con-text of new town-country relationships, and (iii) the organisa-tional and consultation processes necessary for actors presentin the same territory.


Extensions to national and international collaborationsINRA will not alone be able to take up the challenges of world foodsecurity and global change.As well as CIRAD and other partners inAgreenium, academic collaborations with specialists in the sciencesof energy, climate, geography or urbanism will need to be rein-forced and/or developed40. At the European and international lev-els, work will benefit from the participation of the Institute (in itscapacity as a founder member of the French node) in theKnowledge and Innovation Community on climate (KIC Climat) setup in early 2010, and its role as a leader in the Joint ProgrammingInitiative on “Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change”. Theefforts and research organised in response to the challenge of foodsecurity will also be ensured in collaboration with different institu-tional partners, and notably the French Ministries for Agricultureand Ecology, ADEME41, ONEMA42, AFD43 and OIE44: several insti-tutional partners have already declared their interest in setting upa platform for research, studies and expertise on the issue of landuse linked to the development of biofuels and their potentialimpact, greenhouse gas emissions by agriculture and forests, or therole of animal production systems and related questions raised bycertain groups in view of the rarity of available land.

Actions proposed for INRAIn addition to extending the life of the Agrimonde ® foresight plat-form, improving and developing quantitative tools that can bemobilised in this context and broadening the circle of interested stake-holders in the form of an extended “Partners’ Club”, this scientific chal-lenge will be the subject of scientific debate on the general issue ofland (availability, potential competition between uses for food or non-food production or for environmental purposes, the impacts of globalchange on land availability and use, tax policies and land prices, etc.),with the possible initiation of a programme at the end of 2011.Furthermore, the third part of the “Pour et sur le développementrégional” project (For and On Regional Development”, PSDR III), devel-oped in partnership with CEMAGREF,CIRAD and the Regional Councilsof ten French administrative regions, will be completed at the end of2011; it will then be necessary to decide on the future of this pro-gramme in the context of territorial development according to a dialec-tic ranging from the local to the global, and vice versa.

40 Such collaborations are starting to be developed and structured; for example, inthe context of the dynamic around the Plateau de Saclay Campus.41 ADEME : Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie (FrenchEnvironment and Energy Management Agency)42 ONEMA : Office national de l’eau et des milieux aquatiques (French NationalAgency for Water and Aquatic Environments)43 AFD : Agence française de développement (French Development Agency).44 OIE: Organisation mondiale de la santé animale (World Organisation for AnimalHealth)

A dearth of land?Does Earth lack land? The leap in agricultural and food pricesseen during 2007 and early 2008, and the hunger riots thatresulted, caused a resurgence of Malthusian fears as to ourplanet's inability to meet the food needs of the world, todayand even more tomorrow, when in 2050 there will be morethan 9 billion inhabitants. These fears have been reinforcedby the concomitant development of non-food uses for agri-cultural goods (particularly to produce biofuels) and the needto reform agricultural production systems; these issues raisequestions as to our ability to increase or (even just maintainyields) in a context of greater respect for natural resources.

Land is available to grow crops without encroaching onforests and protected areas, even if account is taken of landlost because of rising human occupation*. However, theseland "reserves" are limited and very unevenly distributed:almost absent in South Asia, the Near and Middle East andNorth Africa, they are much more substantial in LatinAmerica (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia) and Sub-Saharan Africa (Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congoand Sudan). But in these regions, the efficient use of land forcropping comes up against several obstacles linked to theirlower intrinsic fertility, a lack of water, a difficult topography(sharp slopes, distant from habitations), problematic logis-tics, the deficiencies of local laws on property or exploitationand political crises or instabilities.

So the outlook is not catastrophic, but vigilance is essential.Even if Earth does not lack land, we must not forget that itremains a rare resource. The question of competition betweendifferent uses for land is an economic notion. Ultimately, it isthe prospect of a positive outcome that determines the cultiva-tion of a hectare, and it is a comparison of the marginal prof-itability of different markets that defines the allocation of landbetween its possible uses: agricultural food and non-food pro-duction, forests, recreational or urban spaces, etc. For this rea-son, the issue of "land use" lies at the heart of the priorities inthis orientation document, notably in the context of the chal-lenge relative to global food security.

* This artificialisation of land is modest at a planetary scale: it is more significant in devel-oped countries such as France and more generally the Member States of the EuropeanUnion (EU), notably because it affects fertile land at the periphery of urban zones.

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