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European infrastructures for sustainable agriculture

Nature Plants volume 3, pages 756–758 (2017)Cite this article

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The European infrastructures EMPHASIS and AnaEE aim to collaborate in bringing innovative solutions for a sustainable intensification of agriculture. By integrating the study of plant phenomics and agricultural ecology they hope to foster the development of novel scientific concepts, sensors and integrated models.

Ensuring food security in the coming decades for the nine billion global population expected by 2050 will need radical changes in society1,2. Population increase, diet modifications and increased demand for biogenerated chemicals and biofuel will require a 50–100% increase in production of the major food and non-food crops3. This is a huge challenge considering the expected impact of climate change on yields4,5, the growing scarcity of agricultural resources (land, water and soon phosphorus) and the dependency of modern agriculture on energy-intensive fertilizer production and automation. Moreover, agriculture itself is a source of environmental threats, including pollution, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and loss of biodiversity. A decrease in biodiversity is also a threat for agriculture, which relies on good soil functioning and pest control, both of which are based on a diversity of biotic interactions. The increase in food production needs to be achieved through agronomic methods and optimized genotypes that will sustain the environment and preserve natural resources. This calls for a large investment of nations into a ‘sustainable intensification’ of global agriculture6 — a more ‘climate-smart agriculture’7 that reorients agricultural systems to cope with climate change and biodiversity conservation.

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Fig. 1: EMPHASIS and AnaEE domains.

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Acknowledgements

The concept of this opinion paper was drawn from an international FACCE JPI workshop in Wageningen, the Netherlands, on 27/28 October 2016. The European Commission supports the development of the vision for EMPHASIS through the grants number 739514 (EMPHASIS PREP) and 731013 (EPPN2020). It supported AnaEE through the Preparatory Phase grant number 312690.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNRS, Ecotron UPS-3248, Campus Baillarguet, F-34980, Montferrier-sur-Lez, France

    Jacques Roy

  2. INRA, UMR 759 LEPSE, 2 Place Viala F-34000, Montpellier, France

    François Tardieu

  3. INRA, Direction scientifique Environnement, 75338, Paris cedex 07, France

    Michèle Tixier-Boichard

  4. Plant Sciences, Institute for Bio- and Geosciences, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425, Jülich, Germany

    Ulrich Schurr

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  1. Jacques Roy
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  2. François Tardieu
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  4. Ulrich Schurr
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Correspondence to Ulrich Schurr.

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Roy, J., Tardieu, F., Tixier-Boichard, M. et al. European infrastructures for sustainable agriculture. Nature Plants 3, 756–758 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-017-0027-3

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