Ambitious environmental and economic goals for the future of agriculture are unequally achieved by innovative cropping systems

International audience

English. Agriculture has to face huge challenges in the decades ahead. Four innovative cropping systems were assessed ina “cropping system experiment” in the Ile-de-France region (France) from 2009 to 2014. Three were designed tomeet ambitious goals: the total elimination of pesticides (No-Pest), reducing fossil energy consumption by 50%(L-EN), or decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50% (L-GHG). They were also required to satisfy awide range of environmental criteria and to maximize yields whilst respecting the major constraint on the systemand the environmental targets set. A fourth system (PHEP), in which the environmental and yield targets wereachieved with no major constraint, was also assessed. After completion of the first full crop sequence for theseinnovative systems, the results obtained indicated that it was possible to design and implement innovativesystems achieving multiple goals. In our field trial conditions, the pesticide and energy constraints were almostsatisfied, whereas the GHG target was missed by a considerable margin. All four innovative systems satisfiedenvironmental criteria in terms of N management, pesticide use, energy consumption and crop diversity.However, herbicide treatment frequency index (TFIH) was higher than expected in the two systems with no-plowpractices, L-EN and L-GHG. In the pesticide-free system, soil organic matter content was lower than expected,due to frequent plowing (every 2 years) and low residue levels as a result of the lower yields obtained. Yieldswere lower for the L-EN system than for the reference system, and yield was variable in the L-GHG system. Theseinnovative systems had better environmental performances than the systems currently used in the Ile-de-Franceregion, with no decrease in gross margins.