Document type : press release from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty (MASA)
Author : MASA
Preview: This Friday, January 6, the French Priority Research Program and Infrastructure (PEPR) on agro-ecology and digital technology was officially launched by the Ministries for Research, Agriculture, and Digital Transition and by the General Secretariat for Investment, which runs the France 2030 initiative.
Financed by the French government to the tune of 65 million euros as part of France 2030, this new PEPR is to mobilize digital technology to accelerate the agro-ecological transition, for the benefit of all farmers. The launch was attended by Sylvie Retailleau, Minister for Higher Education and Research, and Marc Fesneau, Minister for Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, along with Philippe Mauguin and Bruno Sportisse, CEOs of the program's lead organizations, INRAE and Inria.
Digital technology offers a strategic lever to accelerate the ecological transition of agricultural systems and meet the challenges of food security, climate change and the environment. Research and innovation has a fundamental role to play in building up a responsible form of digital agriculture that serves the development of sustainable production methods.
Launched today at the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, with an audience of 150 key actors drawn from the worlds of research, higher education, innovation and the industry, the program will receive 65 million euros from France 2030 over 8 years. Its ambition is to accelerate the third agricultural revolution, on the basis of lived experience and knowledge. The program will finance high-level research and will support innovation and its practical applications in the regions. It will also allow academic work in these areas to be strengthened, in particular by creating close partnerships between major research universities, and will make possible the creation of a federated research ecosystem at the interface between agro-ecology and digital technology, which will concentrate on four main themes:
- Supporting changes to practice by studying the place and role of technologies, their impacts, and public policy;
- The characterization of animal and plant genetic resources, in order to evaluate their potential for agroecology and promote their use
- The development of new generations of agricultural equipment using digital technologies and robotics. These will assist farmers in their work and will, for example, improve animal health and welfare by using networked livestock buildings, or reduce the use of phytosanitary products by means of precision farming;
- The development of digital tools to support decision-making, in particular that of AI for data collection and analysis in agriculture, to improve the effectiveness of agricultural practices.
This research program forms part of the"Sustainable agricultural systems and agricultural equipment contributing to the ecological transition" acceleration strategy, which aims to direct innovation towards increasing the resilience and competitiveness of agriculture, enabling it to meet the challenges of climate change and threats to food sovereignty by producing sufficient quantities of good quality food, from both a nutritional and environmental point of view. The research teams will work with other programs from the acceleration strategy, including the Advanced Varietal Selection, Grand Défi Robotique, and Biocontrol and Biostimulants PEPRs.
As long-established partners and co-authors of the "Agriculture and Digital Technology" White Paper, published in March 2022, INRAE and Inria have been asked to jointly lead this ambitious research program on the synergies between the digital and agro-ecological transitions.
Press release published on the websites of:
- INRAE on Friday, January 6 : France 2030 | Agroécologie et numérique : l’Etat investit 65 millions d’euros dans un nouveau programme de recherche
- Inria on Friday 6 January: France 2030 | Agroecology and digital technology: the State invests 65 million euros in a new research program
