Search

In spite of variable grain protein contents, baking quality of organic wheat was found to be acceptable to good. Mycotoxin (DON) infestation was generally low on tested grain samples. Choice of wheat cultivar was the most efficient way to obtain higher grain quality. Fertilization with readily available nitrogen and, to a lower extent, association with legumes and green manures with mixtures containing fodder legumes also improved grain quality. Reduced tillage affected soil quality and wheat yield but had little effects on grain quality.

This chapter is a first attempt to analyse bottlenecks and challenges of European organic bread wheat sector involving technical, political and market issues. From 2000, the organic grain market has largely increased in Western Europe. To balance higher consumer demand there is a need to increase organic production by a new transition and technical improvement. Bread wheat is grown in a variety of crop rotations and farming systems where four basic organic crop production systems have been defined. Weeds and nitrogen deficiency are considered to be the most serious threat inducing lowest grain yield under organic production. The choice of cultivar, green manure, fertilization and intercropping legumes – grain or forage – are efficient ways to obtain high grain quality and quantity.The economic viability of wheat production in Europe is also affected by subsidies from European Union agri-environmental programs. Support has been granted to organic farming since the beginning of the 1990s. Direct payments from European regulation combined with premium prices paid by consumers had compensated the lowest crop production. In the European Union, the current cycle of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is due to end in 2013. Discussions are now under way to support the policy for the period 2014–2020. With the increasing consumer awareness of their food, the growth of the organic sector may continue in the near future. However, financial crisis in some countries may lead to stagnation or even decline of consumer demand.The development of the organic grain sector is actually confronted to others challenges as quality and safety value. Technological ways of milling and baking may also improve baking quality and nutritional value of organic flour, as well as it prevents mycotoxin contamination. For instance, milling process strongly influences flour characteristics. Stone milling improves nutritive value when characteristics remain very stable independently of the milling yield while flour characteristics from roller milling appear very susceptible to the milling yield. The economic efficiency of the bread wheat sector is also influences by the existence of an adequate marketing structure answering consumers’ requirements. This paper is a contribution of a multidisciplinary group of researchers involved in AGTEC-Org project using peer review, statistical data and interviews of key actors: farmers, advisers or experts (coreorganic.org/research/projects/agtec-org/index.html).

Agronomical ways for better quality and safety Choice of cultivar is an efficient way to obtain higher grain quality. Intercropping legumes (grain or forage) improves weed competition and N availability for wheat crop or succeeding crop. Green manure can be an effective alternative to farmyard manure. Fertilization with readily available nitrogen improves yield and quality when water is available. Reduced tillage affects soil fertility and wheat yield but has little effects on grain quality. Technological ways for better quality and safety Milling process strongly influences flour characteristics. Stone milling improves nutritive value; characteristics remain very stable independent of the milling yield. Flour characteristics from roller milling appear very susceptible to the milling yield. Increasing the milling yield in the aim of enriching nutritional quality has a detrimental effect either on safety (DON) or on bread-making quality (bread volume).

The total organic area in the EU-27 had an annual average growth rate of nearly 15% from 1998 to 2006 with winter wheat being the most important cereal crop. Wheat yield in organic farming is around 30% to 70% of yield of conventional farming but higher premia for organic wheat may to some extent compensate for this. Bread wheat is grown in a variety of crop rotations and farming systems and four basic organic crop production systems have been defined. Nitrogen deficiency and weed infestation are considered to be the most serious threat in organic wheat production. Organic wheat producers will have to fulfil the technological needs of bakers although the requirements differ widely from small artisan bakers to large enterprises handling the organic bread processing. To maintain and expand organic wheat production, there is a need to control weed population, manage nitrogen nutrition and maintain crop diversity in the cropping system. In order to obtain a share in the premium price of organic wheat products, farmers may involve in further processing and marketing.

National audience

International audience; Background and aims: Many models have been developed to evaluate crop growth and development, but few are capable of simulating grapevine systems. The present study was carried out to evaluate the ability of the STICS model to represent grapevine phenology, biomass production, yield and soil water content in two situations differing with respect to rainfall distribution and water management strategies. Methods and results: Simulations were performed for an irrigated vineyard in Chile and an irrigated and a non-irrigated vineyard in France. The crop model gave a good estimation of the main stages of grapevine phenology (less than six days difference between simulated and observed values). Soil water content was the best simulated variable (R2 = 0.99), whereas grapevine evapotranspiration observed only in Chile (R2 = 0.43) and leaf area index observed only in France (R2= 0.80) were the worst simulated variables. Biomass production, yield and their components were correctly simulated (within the 95 % Student confidence interval around the mean observed value). A comparison of the fraction of transpirable soil water and vine water potential measurements with the water stress indices calculated by the STICS model showed that the time and duration of the grapevine water stress period was correctly estimated. Conclusions: Therefore, the STICS model was reasonably successful in simulating vine growth and development, and identifying critical periods concerning the vine water status. Significance of the study: The STICS model can be used to evaluate various water management strategies and their impacts on grape production

International audience; Although existing simulation tools can be used to study the impact of agricultural management on production activities in specific environments, they suffer from several limitations. They are largely specialized for specific production activities: arable crops/cropping systems, grassland, orchards, agro-forestry, livestock etc. Also, they often have a restricted ability to simulate system externalities which may have a negative environmental impact. Furthermore, the structure of such systems neither allows an easy plug-in of modules for other agricultural production activities, nor the use of alternative components for simulating processes. Finally, such systems are proprietary systems of either research groups or projects which inhibits further development by third parties. The EU Sixth Framework Integrated Project SEAMLESS aims to provide a tool to integrate analyses of impacts on the key aspects of sustainability and multi-functionality, particularly in Europe. This requires evaluating agricultural production and system externalities for the most important agricultural production systems. It also requires a simulation framework which can be extended and updated by research teams, which allows a manageable transfer of research results to operational tools, and which is transparent with respect to its contents and its functionality. The Agricultural Production and Externalities Simulator (APES) is a modular simulation system aimed at meeting these requirements, and targeted at estimating the biophysical behavior of agricultural production systems in response to the interaction of weather and agro-technical management. APES is a framework which uses components that offer simulation options for different processes of relevance to agricultural production systems. Models are described in the associated help files of components, and a shared ontology is built on the web. Components like these, which are designed to be inherently re-usable, that is not targeted specifically to a given modelling framework, also represent a way to share modelling knowledge with other projects and the scientific community in general. This chapter describes the current state of APES development and presents modelling options in the system, and its software architecture.