French Agrifood Industry

Through participatory science, researchers call on society to help them collect, sort and sometimes even analyze data. This fieldwork, sometimes time-consuming, is essential for all scientific research, and is made easier thanks to digital technology. Websites and smartphone applications now allow to create direct links between researchers and citizens: Photos, GPS coordinates, observations, etc. Everyone […]

Grapes vines are sensitive to numerous fungal and viral diseases that need to be controlled for in order to get a quality grape harvest. This are typically treated for using chemical methods, which makes viticulture the second highest user of phytosanitary products in France after cereals. Despite its effectiveness, this protection method can have undesirable […]

Ebene is a smartphone application that provides the opportunity to farmers to evaluate the welfareof their animals, in a fast and confidential manner. It makes it possible to measure different criteria related to feed, environment, health and the behavior of the animals. Its easy-to-use interface helps farmers immediately visualize the weak points and strong points […]

An international team composed in part by researchers from the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), has succeeded in forming the first sequencing of the pea genome. Other than providing a better understanding of the genome of this plant compared to that of other legumes, will help improve certain characteristics of interest in peas, […]

Agricultural intensification and the destruction of semi-natural landscapes (field copses, hedges, buffer strips, etc.) is one of the primary causes of current biodiversity loss. While reconverting cultivated lands to semi-natural landscapes is often difficult in many areas, increasing the complexity of the crop mosaic by decreasing field size and/or increasing the diversity of planted crops […]

A team of French researchers, some of them from the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, has just shown for the first time that organic agriculture benefits honey bee colonies feeding particularly during the period of food scarcity at the end of spring. The research team analyzed six years of data collected as part of […]

Since June 2019, a new social network allows farmers to connect to one another and to exchange, particularly around their practices: Farmr. How does this new French platform work? In December 2017, Baptist Létocart founded his business Farmr with his associate Thomas Camboulive. “I am from an agricultural background, my colleague comes from the digital […]

The High Council for the Climate, a French independent government entity of expertise put in place by the President of France in November 2018, released its first report June 26. In particular, it noted the positive results in the agriculture sector in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “Emissions in the agricultural sector are practically stable over […]

In France, organic agriculture confirmed its strength in 2018, particularly in production. This included both an increase in the lands devoted to organic agriculture and the consumption of organic products, but also job creation: the industry had its best growth in six years and doubled the production from five years ago. Five thousand additional farms […]

Launched by the Ministry for Higher Education, Research, and Innovation, the Zero Pesticide Goal Program is part of the French government’s goal of moving toward an agriculture that is more respectful of the environment and better for human health. It creates a roadmap that is clear and ambitious for the scientific community to develop, with […]