Design of multi-performance systems

For almost a decade now, in contrast to the dominant conventional model spawned by the green revolution, two Indian states launched a wide-ranging reform of their agricultural system: Sikkim was entirely converted to organic agriculture, and in Andhra Pradesh, Natural Farming now counts more than 600,000 farmers.

Managing the health of animals, crops and soils is a key issue for the scaling-up of organic farming. The originality of the consortium lies in the unprecedented collaboration of disciplinary communities working on the integrated management of plant and animal health to explore the interfaces between these two kingdoms, as well as the link to soil health, and to catalyse the emergence of new scientific fronts.

The asynchronous estrus and farrowing in organic pig farms complicate animal management, increase workload, reduce farm performance, and impact the homogeneity of piglet weaning weight and age. Developing alternatives to synthetic hormones, which are banned in organic farming, would make it possible to synchronize the cycles of females and facilitate herd management.

Whereas certain organic plant crops are in full expansion, organic animal production is struggling to develop in France’s overseas departments and regions (DROM).

This transdisciplinary project analyzes the feasibility and added-value of associating rabbits with an organic apple orchard.

Biodiversity provides agroecosystems with a multitude of ecological services. The effects of organic agriculture (OA) and the benefits it brings in terms of biodiversity are still poorly known. Ecological, agronomical and economic performances in OA vary widely, and few studies have focused on quantifying the synergies and antagonisms between these performances.