Challenge 1: Sustainable agroecosystems in a context of global change

Objective: optimize the integration of the agricultural systems into their environment and territories

Agroecosystems are facing numerous challenges: climate change, decline in biodiversity, need for input reduction, need for sustainable quality food supply, new dietary behaviors as well as new perception of agriculture at a global level, etc.

Our production modes need to adapt in order to face the threefold challenge: economic, social and environmental sustainability. Challenge 1 of CAP 20-25 focuses on two agricultural systems that are emblematic of the Auvergne region: cereals (predominant in the plain of Limagne) and herbivores (predominant livestock in moderately mountainous areas), as well as on key socioeconomic partners such as Limagrain and the ARIA. Ultimately, the project ambition is to optimize the integration of agricultural systems into their environment and territories. This implies raising these systems resilience and sustainability levels taking into account their production and environmental performances, while addressing social demands (end-product quality, animal welfare, etc.).


Challenge 1 structured its work around 8 deliverables, each with a roadmap defining an action plan for the coming years.

Challenge 1 deliverables:

The living lab "LIT" on field crops in Auvergne

Objective : design, assess and circulate innovative solutions aiming at creating new forms of crops cultures with a higher economical, environmental and societal added value for the territory. The LIT brings together farmers, citizens and the whole territorial ecosystem around a participative innovation tool, the « living lab ».

The livestock meat Consortium

Objective: setup a new form of organisation in order to reinforce the dialogue between the actors of the sector (upstream and downstream) and the world of research, and coordinate the research actions on livestock meat in the Region.

Documentation (FR):


Objective: adapt crops cultures to extreme temperatures by introducing trees and study the micro climatic impact of mature trees on meadows and livestock.

An industrial Chair edicated to crops culture adpatation capacity

New crop ideotypes

Objective: design crop ideotypes more resilient to global change

Low input systems for livestock production

Objective: design, experiment and assess livestock production systems that combine a low input approach (energy, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, concentrated feed and veterinary drugs) and provide numerous ecosystemic services, or rely on ecosystemic services to decrease their dependency on inputs.

An environmental Cloud for Agriculture

Objective: enable a better understanding of environmental systems, of their evolution in a context of global change, of their interaction with agroecosystems (environmental factors impact on agricultural productions and vice-versa).

Contact: Gilles Mailhot, in charge of the environnemental Cloud project

Decision-making tools

Objective: design decision-making tools and models for small to large-scale sustainable agroecosystems and make them available to professional agricultural organizations, researchers, local communities.