ARBRATATOUILLE 3

Projet financing:

Total budget: 274 168,76 euros

PSH budget: 42 266,16 euros

Financier : union européenne, région Occitanie, agence de l’eau

Duration: 2024-2027

Abstract:

ARBRATATOUILLE 3 is a research project on agroforestry vegetable production, based on active collaboration between farmers and researchers. It aims to improve our knowledge of the interactions between trees and market gardening production in order to propose avenues for reflection on the design and management of agroforestry market gardening systems. The ultimate goal of the project is to improve the performance (productivity and profitability) of market gardening crops in agroforestry by studying the optimal conditions for combining trees and market gardening crops.

The objectives are as follows:

• To sustain and consolidate a participatory experimentation approach that enables research work to be carried out in close proximity to the challenges faced by market gardeners.
• Measure and improve the agronomic performance of various vegetable crops associated with trees (tomatoes, lettuce and potatoes).
• Understand the microclimate created by agroforestry developments, as well as the sharing of water resources, in order to understand the efficiency of water use in these systems.
• Evaluate the effects of trees on soil biology and fertility.
• Propose technical and economic benchmarks and optimise technical itineraries for agroforestry crop management.

Promote exchanges on agroforestry market gardening and the project's results to a wide audience.

The project is based on a participatory approach involving farmers and researchers.

PSH role:

•  ACTION 2: STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF TREES ON THE MICROCLIMATE. This will involve assessing the microclimate, evaporative demand and water use efficiency at different levels of agroforestry shade and/or at different distances from trees, compared to control areas without trees.

• ACTION 3: AGRONOMIC PERFORMANCE AND EFFICIENCY OF WATER AND NUTRIENT USE. The objective of this action is to assess the agronomic performance of different vegetable crops in an agroforestry context. The crops to be studied as part of the project are tomatoes, potatoes and lettuce. Two aspects will be addressed:

Study of crop growth, development and yields: Each crop will be regularly monitored for growth (height, diameter, surface mass, etc.), development (phenological stages) and yield.

Study of water and nutrient resource sharing: The data collected, combined with microclimatic and water data, will be used to assess the efficiency of water use in agroforestry in different configurations and in comparison with a control.

Project partners:

AGROOF (coordinateur) ; INRAE UR PSH ; INRAE UMR ECO&SOLS ; Olivier Gavach & Héléna Ménager (maraîchers sur les Terres de Roumassouze) ; Nicolas Verzotti (maraîcher sur la ferme du colibri).

Links:

https://arbratatouille.projet-agroforesterie.net/