Context and challenges

In the current context of food and agroecological transition associated with climate change, arable farmers are challenged by the need to maintain sufficient yields and quality while trying to reduce input use and to guarantee beneficial effects of the diet on the health of consumers and the environment. A recent FAO report underlined the need for coherence between food and environmental systems, notably through a reinforcement of ecosystem services, and an increase in food security and resilience. It is therefore necessary to identify new levers to achieve this ambitious goal. One option is to mobilise the functions assured by soil biodiversity, and particularly by microbial diversity. Microbes are indeed the most numerous and diversified organisms living in soil. Numerous studies have shown that microbial abundance and diversity are strongly modulated by farming practices such as tillage or organic fertilisation, etc., and that these changes to microbial diversity impact ecosystem functions/services essential to agricultural production: the transformation of soil organic matter, the regulation of pathogenic organisms in the soil, resilience and primary productivity. All these studies have suggested a probable link between soil microbial diversity and the quality and health value of the products harvested. However, to our knowledge, this link has never been studied and demonstrated explicitly, despite the crucial nature of this issue in the context of the transition we are now experiencing.

Objectives

QUAMISOL is an exploratory, interdisciplinary and innovative project that brings together four academic partners from two INRAE Divisions (AgroEcoSystem and AlimH) and aims to demonstrate the existence of a link between soil microbial diversity, crop resilience in the context of water shortages, crop residue quality, and the quality and health value of harvested products (to achieve concomitant benefits to the environment and health). This proof of concept will be addressed in two cultivated species whose quality criteria and determinants are markedly contrasted: tomato, which is a fleshy fruit, and lentil, a legume grain. The project will combine experimental approaches (microbial ecology, ecophysiology, plant and animal physiology, micronutrition) with modelling (plant ecophysiology) in order to achieve simulations of plant traits or cultivation practices that favour the health quality of harvested products. This project forms part of Area 1 of the SYALSA metaprogramme: “The construction of food and dietary qualities, from agricultural production to impacts on health and the environment of different diets”. ».

INRAE units involved

• Agroécologie
• Centre de recherche en cardiovasculaire et nutrition (C2VN)
• Microbiologie de l’alimentation au service de la santé (MCALIS)
• Plantes et systèmes de culture horticoles (PSH)

Partners

• Terres Inovia
• SONITO

Contact

Marion Prudent (UMR Agroécologie)