The UMR ABSys supports the agroecological transition by producing knowledge and methods for the assessment and design of perennial crop-based cropping systems, including agroforestry, in a wide range of Mediterranean and tropical environments.
Working on perennial plants leads agronomists to take several specificities into account: multi-annual "memory effects", systems that are difficult to transform rapidly. Working on systems associating several species means studying the often complex interactions between plants and between practices.
The desire of civil societies in the North to promote agro-ecological transition is clear. In the South, this desire is less clearly expressed at present, but we are convinced that a change will take place in the coming years because this transition is also necessary. Our skills in research, training and expertise, as well as our networks of partners, provide a solid basis for accompanying these changes and enhancing the value of the knowledge we produce.
This transition will necessarily be plural: mobilisation of structural and functional diversity, "’agrobiodiversité", recycling strategies at different scales, etc. It is by combining a variety of levers that an agro-ecological transition can be achieved. We are studying the conditions of diffusion and contextualisation of these innovative cropping systems.
