The ARPEGE project is part of a societal and environmental context aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural practices, their impact on biodiversity and the use of plant protection products, as well as providing traceability of these practices.

The ARPEGE project aims to structure and develop sustainable agricultural value chains based on the principles of regenerative agriculture. Through a collective approach involving cooperatives, manufacturers, technical institutes and startups, the project aims to experiment, co-construct and disseminate innovative solutions to strengthen the resilience of agricultural sectors, enhance the value of committed producers and offer high value-added products.

- The creation of agricultural chains that meet Axereal's regenerative agriculture specifications and are structured around peas in particular.
- Increasing production volumes in line with sustainable specifications (up to 30,000 t by 2026).
- Improving farming practices: stable yields, harvest quality, resilient rotations.
- Development of technical tools to support farmers (protocols, diagnostics, monitoring).
- Reducing manufacturers' carbon footprint through sustainable sourcing.
- Enhancing the value of Axereal's regenerative agriculture products.

Inocula of various Rhizobium species have been marketed in France since the 1970s, and represent the first example of large-scale valorization of inoculated microorganisms in agricultural production. Against a backdrop of expanding regulatory frameworks, more abundant supply, the emergence of new species of valuable bacteria and technological developments, the historic product evaluation system and the quality guarantees it offers users appear fragile, although they could serve as an example for future proposals better adapted to the new context.

The aim is to lay the foundations for a system of evaluation and control of inoculation products for all Rhizobia inocula, but also for other bacterial microorganisms, in order to guarantee users a quality product.

Draw up a precise inventory of :

• products on the market and the economic players involved (manufacturers and distributors)
• Evaluation and control methods and criteria taken into account
• economic players likely to be involved in controls, with a view to identifying their specific features and expertise
• economic players involved in seeds and their coating with micro-organisms

Despite growing demand from farmers and consumers, applied research efforts remain very modest, given the still modest size of the pulse seed market. In order to secure production and ensure optimal nitrogen fixation for the various pulse species, it seems essential to work on the production of specific inocula, adapted and directly applied to seeds, to facilitate their use by farmers. However, to date in France, there is no inoculum used routinely with proven efficacy in chickpea, lentil or dry bean.

The development of rhizobium inoculum would undoubtedly enable us to increase the area under legume production, and thus move towards national production autonomy and meet consumer needs, particularly for local products.

The overall aim of the project is to develop rhizobium coatings specific to each species, adapted to French growing basins and also suitable for use in organic farming.

• Characterization of efficient rhizobium strains per legume species in different production basins in France
• Production of 3 efficient rhizobium strains per species to enable production testing of these strains.
• Development of an industrial rhizobium coating recipe for each species
• Coating chickpea, lentil and dry bean varieties with the selected inocula to enable them to be marketed in France, after obtaining marketing authorization.

For several years now, farmers in the Plateaux de Bourgogne region have been faced with technical impasses, particularly when it comes to controlling damage caused by autumn rapeseed insects (winter flea beetles, terminal bud weevils), which have developed considerable resistance to pyrethroid insecticides. What's more, since the ban on neonicotinoids, aphid risk management on cereals has become more difficult.

Against this urgent backdrop, the local challenge is to restore high, stable levels of production and profitability through resilient cropping systems, as part of a sustainable agriculture approach. All the region's agricultural players share the need to initiate profound changes in production methods and pest management strategies.

The R2D2 project is a territorial project. It aims to support 10 farmers in implementing an agro-ecological management strategy for crop pests across an area of 1,300 ha. The principle is a combination of agronomic levers in the field to boost crop robustness, and innovative practices and landscaping to encourage auxiliary insects and discourage crop pests. The aim is to move away from chemical, individual, curative pest management at plot level to concerted, preventive management on a regional scale, combining agronomy with the principles of conservation biological control.

On a regional scale

• Increase biological regulation by limiting the unintended effects of agricultural practices on auxiliary fauna and increasing habitats and food resources for crop auxiliaries.
• Manipulate the behavior of pests on a regional scale to reduce their populations and crop damage (flea beetle trap intercropping technique).

At farm plot level

• Avoid the presence of pests by adapting sowing dates
• Increase crop robustness using agronomic levers to limit the harmfulness of pest attacks.

Oilseed and protein crops are not competitive with the dominant crops in the crop rotation. The National Strategy for Vegetable Proteins aims to significantly increase the acreage of these crops, enabling France to make up part of its shortfall in protein-rich materials. One of the levers for increasing the competitiveness of these crops, and legumes in particular, is to improve genetic progress for these species by increasing varietal renewal on the farm.

• Accelerate the development of pulse varieties adapted to French production conditions;
• Increase the use of recent varieties in crop rotation for seed legumes (self-pollinating species);
• Optimize the choice of oilseed and protein crop varieties to meet market demands in terms of protein content, or adaptation to difficult production contexts.

• Creation of a cooperative scheme with Mediterranean ambitions for the varietal improvement of pulses
• Communicate on high-performance varieties adapted to production constraints and the needs of protein-rich commodity chains.

Rapeseed acreage is declining in the Adour-Garonne region, due to difficulties encountered by growers in planting the crop and exacerbated pressure from bio-aggressors. In a sector where rapeseed is a crop used to diversify production systems. This is why the CASO'PURE project, which brings together a wide range of players in agricultural development and involves local farmers, aims to contribute to the design, testing and collective evaluation of technical itineraries adapted to our region, with a view to producing rapeseed that is more respectful of water and biodiversity. It also aims to disseminate the operational knowledge acquired to a wide audience of advisors and farmers.

• Test and co-design technical itineraries to develop water- and biodiversity-friendly rapeseed.
• Evaluate the innovative technical performance of rapeseed.
• Promote innovative rapeseed technical itineraries to farmers and advisors.

For farmers:

• Access to detailed technical itineraries for growing rapeseed combined with legumes, in a way that respects water and biodiversity.
• Participation in technical days to acquire practical knowledge.
• Solutions to overcome current technical challenges, promoting the reintegration of rapeseed into their farming systems.

For the regions :

• Stabilize or increase rapeseed acreage in the Adour-Garonne basin.
• Contribution to plant protein self-sufficiency, consolidating local rapeseed collection and processing infrastructures.
• Reduction of soil erosion and diffuse pollution.

For water :

• Reduced risk of nitrate leaching thanks to nitrogen uptake by companion plants.
• Reduced diffuse pollution thanks to prolonged plant cover.

For biodiversity:

• Creation of favorable habitats for pollinators and auxiliary insects.
• Diversification of crops, improving the resilience of agricultural ecosystems.

The tools currently used to calculate nitrogen fertilization for winter rapeseed are based on the projected nitrogen balance method. However, this method is regularly called into question due to the difficulty of estimating the yield target and the nitrogen supply by the soil at the time the balance is opened. For this reason, a method has recently been developed for integral management of nitrogen fertilization in straw cereals, based on remote sensing monitoring of the crop's nitrogen nutrition status in spring. This method uses an indicator that provides direct, real-time information on the crop's nitrogen requirements: the nitrogen nutrition index (NNI). The main challenge of the project is to develop this method for rapeseed.

• Definition of a threshold trajectory for the nitrogen nutrition index during the period of interest (from winter emergence to flowering), which is not detrimental to yield.
• Creation of operational decision rules for dynamic management of nitrogen fertilization (maintaining the nutrition index above the threshold trajectory at all times during the period of interest), based on existing ecophysiological knowledge, expertise and the use of a crop model.
• Development of reliable tools for indirect estimation of the nitrogen nutrition index (remote sensing) to ensure the operationality of decision rules.

The method that will be developed in this project aims to offer a real time method for managing nitrogen fertilization, enabling the doses of nitrogen applied to be better adjusted to the crop's needs than the forecast balance method. The results of this project will have an innovative scope, as there is no tool using this method for winter rapeseed. The project will encourage the creation of projects in partnership with private companies in the sectors of agricultural cooperation and trade, remote sensing and the marketing of digital farm management solutions and crop management aids.

The project could make it possible to propose several levers:

• Improving the competitiveness of the industry: in broiler production, feed is the main expense item. However, with the rising cost of raw materials, customized feed could reduce the total quantity of nutrients distributed to the animals, thus significantly reducing feed costs.
• Protecting the environment by reducing nitrogen and phosphorus discharges, and taking into account the environmental impact of raw materials: adjusting nutritional intakes to strictly meet animal needs, and using highly digestible PRPMs, will enable proteins to be better valorized, thus reducing nitrogen and phosphorus excretions (pollutants) and limiting losses to the environment.
• Improving protein and nitrogen self-sufficiency: European poultry farming, and French poultry farming in particular, is dependent on soya supplies, most of which come from Brazil. However, by adjusting the protein content of feed on a daily basis to strictly meet the animals' needs, we can avoid situations where the protein intake (and therefore the use of soya) is too high in relation to the animals' actual requirements.

The overall aim of the project is to propose an innovative feeding strategy for broiler chickens to improve nutrient utilization efficiency. This "tailor-made" feeding strategy is based on the use of mathematical models to adjust ration composition on a daily basis. The operational objectives are :

• Develop a model for predicting nutritional requirements that can be adapted to production objectives for two types of broiler production (standard and label);
• Build robust models to predict the performance (growth and feed intake) of a batch of broilers, based on the previous days' performance, in order to adapt rations as closely as possible to the animals' needs;
• Provide a tool for multi-objective formulation of customized feeding strategies, adapted to logistical and operational constraints in the field;
• Provide a technical, economic and environmental assessment of the customized feeding strategies developed on the experimental station.

• Development of prediction models and feed formulation tools adapted to customized feeding.
• Distribution of a decision support tool for day-to-day adjustment of the ration to be distributed according to the performance of the current batch.

French consumers are increasingly oriented towards products that respect the environment and their health, particularly when it comes to sunflower oil. In addition, the issue of remuneration for farmers is the most significant lever for increasing consumer willingness to pay. Against this backdrop, the ÉCOLÉO project aims to create a more sustainable French oleic sunflower oil supply chain, covering all links in the value chain, from production to processing, by addressing five challenges:

• Produce sustainable edible oils based on consumer expectations regarding their diet.
• Take part in collective initiatives to develop tools and methods for adapting, prospecting and conquering new markets.
• Changing agricultural models.
• Ensure generational renewal by upgrading the status of the farming profession and promoting new sustainable practices.
• Improve the fair distribution of added value and productivity gains, in particular through new remuneration schemes to be developed.

In order to help this sector move towards more sustainable practices, the project involves actions at every link in the value chain:

• The development of more sustainable agricultural practices, with the provision to farmers of varieties of interest (agronomic and/or organoleptic/nutritional) that are better adapted to a sustainable cultivation system, and technical support for the agroecological transition;
• A traceability, storage and logistics system to eliminate the risk of contamination by phytosanitary residues;
• A new industrial process combining seed hulling and fully mechanical oil extraction to eliminate the use of solvents, while guaranteeing a sufficient level of de-oiling;
• A refining process to reduce or eliminate the use of processing aids and enhance the oil's organoleptic qualities;
• Marketing of products in line with new consumer expectations in terms of sustainability and health benefits.

• Drawing up technical specifications for the sector
• Implementation of sustainable practices upstream
• Harvesting seeds for a demonstrator
• Validation of technical and economic feasibility on an industrial scale
• Implementation of industrial processes and sustainable products

In recent years, rapeseed cultivation has been faced with a number of difficulties linked to insect infestations that are increasingly difficult to manage, combined with unfavorable planting conditions. In this context, winter flea beetles and terminal bud weevils, which are on the increase, have developed resistance to pyrethroids, the main insecticide family used to manage them. This technical impasse has led to the loss of rapeseed acreage, and the situation is likely to worsen with climate change and the end of authorization for phosmet. The aim of the project is therefore to identify and deploy new alternative strategies to combat these two pests. As these strategies are complex, it is essential to mobilize growers and the various development and research players involved, right from the design phase through to deployment.

Adaptacol2, part of the phosmet phase-out plan, aims to provide farmers and agricultural technicians with integrated protection strategies that will enable them to limit the attacks and harmfulness of winter flea beetles and terminal bud weevils. To achieve this, research and development players (public and private research, development players, experimenters, agricultural advisors) are mobilizing to provide coordinated support for farmers in changing their practices.

• Acquire technical references at different scales (trials, plot networks, territory), mobilizing development players as much as possible.
• Establishment of regional committees for regular exchanges between players, which will be progressively fed with the references and knowledge produced by Adaptacol2 and the other projects of the Phosmet Phase-out Plan.