AN EXPERIMENTAL UNIT TO STUDY AND DEVELOP FIELD CROPS

The mission of the Unité Expérimentale d'AgroEcologie et Phénotypage des Cultures of Auzeville (UE APC) of the INRAE Occitanie-Toulouse Centre is to set up experiments on field crops for INRAE research units as well as with other partners (GEVES, EPLEFPA Toulouse-Auzeville, technical institutes...) with a view to contributing to the agro-ecological transition and sustainable development. In this sense, the EU GCA is certified ISO 14001 for its environmental performance and ISO 14001 certification is targeted for 2024. The Unit is also labelled as a Collective Scientific Infrastructure and complies with the Charter of Research Infrastructures.

In order to contribute to agricultural research, 3 technical installations are setting up :

• HeliaPhen, an installation in semi-controlled conditions developed by the LIPME and co-piloted by the UEGCA and the LIPME, which enables abiotic stresses to be tested on potted plants.
• AgroPhen, a field facility for fine phenotyping at low and high throughput that allows the implementation of analytical devices in microparticles for variety and practice evaluation.
• "CSP" (Cropping Systems and Practices), a facility for experimentation on larger instrumented plots that allows the evaluation of successions of practices and crops, with multi-criteria (agronomic, environmental and economic) and longer-term evaluations.

The field installations are deployed on two contrasting cropping systems: a reasoned system and an Organic Agriculture system. Indeed, since January 1st, 2021, the unit has been committed to shifting more than 10% of its production to organic farming. The aim of this transition is to evaluate the new agricultural practices, in a context of organic production, in order to provide the best possible support and advice to the actors of the agricultural world in a rapidly changing sector.

The EU APC occasionally contributes to observation networks and plays a major role in broadband phenotyping.

The Experimental Unit is certified ISO 14001 for its environmental performance and is aiming for ISO 9001 certification. The Unit is also labelled as a Collective Scientific Infrastructure and complies with the Charter of Research Infrastructures.

Redactor: Bastien Dailloux