acp initiative
Aim of the initiative
The International Research Initiative on Agroecological Crop Protection aims to promote a paradigm shift in crop protection by emphasizing preventive and regulatory approaches, as well as the territorial, collective and organizational dimensions of innovation in this field. It is part of a strategy to foster a scientific community that will act as an incubator for these actions. This international initiative launched by the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), together with the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and the Research Institute for Development (IRD) currently networks over 50 international experts/entities from 35 countries.
Context
If the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are to be achieved, major changes in agriculture are needed to eliminate negative externalities on the environment, climate, biodiversity and health, while guaranteeing sufficient, nutritious, healthy and affordable food for everyone on the planet.
Applying agro-ecological principles to plant protection is a major lever for achieving these changes. They mobilise a range of socio-technical innovations (from landscape management to digital technologies) to enhance biodiversity and biotic interactions in order to strengthen natural regulation in agro-ecosystems.
This transition will require greater knowledge of agro-ecosystems and their translation into sustainable practices. Transformative change will only come about by thinking and working together with the diversity of food system stakeholders and citizens, and by shifting our main focus from individual farms to territories and their food systems. The challenge is to demonstrate that agroecological systems are capable of responding to major global challenges by promoting resilient, socially equitable and economically viable food systems that promote biodiversity and soil health and are resistant to climate change.
All types of agriculture are considered in the initiative, from highly standardised and industrialised farming to small-scale farming, encouraging multi-directional learning between countries on all continents. It should enable the production of knowledge and know-how linked to the emergence of territorial, collective and economic organisations to support the growth of agroecological crop protection strategies across the planet.
Research fronts and roadmap
The scientific research fronts will address 4 major challenges in agroecological crop protection and will be explored in an interdisciplinary manner:
Developing preventive approaches in agroecosystems
Managing functional biodiversity to strengthen biological regulation and ecosystem services
Rethinking risk management and value creation, from production to consumption
Providing scientific evidence through participatory processes
To this end, the roadmap will include the following missions and tasks:
© INIAV
Building and federating an international research group driven by the dynamics of local actions in different countries It will help to develop a strategic research agenda and generate synergies between research efforts around key issues in order to influence public authorities and funding bodies.
The deployment of international projects focusing on common objectives for the agroecological protection of crops in a diversity of geographical, climatic, socio-economic and ecological situations, in line with the above strategic research agenda.
In the longer term, the creation of a global network of laboratories “without walls, this is where solutions based on scientific evidence could be proposed, combining expertise to define the problems that require solutions, and the co-creation of solutions with stakeholders to develop public policy projects.
