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Silvoarable agroforestry integrates the use of trees and arable crops on the same area of land, and such systems can be supported by national governments under the European Union’s (EU) Rural Development Regulations (2014–2020). In order to improve the understanding of farmers’ perceptions of such systems, detailed face-to-face interviews were completed with 15 farmers in Bedfordshire, England. Most of these farmers thought that silvoarable systems would not be profitable on their farms and that benefits would tend to be environmental or social rather than economic. Most farmers also thought that management and use of machinery would become more difficult. They felt that the tree component could potentially disrupt field operations and drainage and expressed concerns over the uncertain and long-term nature of timber revenue and the effect of intercrop yield reductions on crop revenue. Even so, 20% of the farmers stated they would use silvoarable systems if convinced that they were more profitable than conventional arable farming. A further 20%said they would farm the intercrop area belonging to someone else, if the rent was reduced to compensate for crop yield reductions. These results suggest that for most arable farmers, an economic advantage over current practice needs to exist before silvoarable systems are likely to be adopted. However, a minority might rent the crop component of a silvoarable system from another party or implement a full system for perceived environmental or social benefits.

To face the new challenges of dairy farming in North-Western Europe, an innovative dairy system was redesigned to produce milk in a context of climate change while saving scarce resources (water, fossil energy) and contributing to a sustainable agriculture. This system, called OasYs, is based on the diversification of forage resources, the development of grazing, larger use of legumes and on a consistent strategy for the livestock system (Novak et al., 2015). The main research hypothesis is that the increase of diversity allows to conciliate production levels and environmental performance, this way improving system resilience.

International audience; From mid 2000, in order to address global challenges, European member states’ strategies for agriculture have progressively identified and given priority to the set up of a multi-functional farm model. In France, first reflection officially started in 2007 through the Grenelle de l'Environnement initiative from which several priority themes were identified, and dedicated measures approved. Concerning agriculture, four different objectives were selected: (a) the deployment of organic farming up to 20 % of the utilized agricultural area by 2020, (b) the Ecophyto plan for a 50 % reduction of the pesticides use, (c) the enforcement of the High Nature Value (HNV) certification scheme and the certification of at least 50 % of the French farms by 2012, and (d) the energetic diagnosis of at least 100.000 farms every 5 years within the farms' energetic performances (PPE) plan. If most of the quantified objectives have not been reached by 2014, coming into force of these measures actually goes on and represents a real opportunity for research organisms to participate to both food security and socio-environmental sustainability by the design, test and deployment of new Productive and Efficient Cropping Systems (PECS). Conversely to the majority of the PECS tested within the EXPE Dephy Ecophyto program, some have been imagined to go further the sole re-conquest of water quality by reducing drastically, or even renouncing chemical pesticides. They actually target (i) the reduction of the farm carbon footprint by reducing and/or mitigating GHG emission, (ii) the improvement of local ecological connectivity by contributing to the establishment emission, (ii) the improvement of local ecological connectivity by contributing to the establishment of new biocorridors and (iii) the financial sustainability of the experimental farms. Among the forty-one EXPE projects funded in 2012 and 2013, only one is testing and monitoring a pesticide-free agroforestry cropping system: SCA0PEST. It aims to: run an experts' panel conceptualization of the SCA0PEST cropping system by considering locally the actual and future market outlets, the hosting parcel and farmhouse agrotechnical potential, and local epidemiologic pressures; to deploy and conduce in farm conditions the cropping system; assess global and thematic performances of it; and favour the disclosure of the obtained knowledge and references towards farmers, advisers and agricultural students