Passing through Bouzule — a breath away from the INRA campus in Champenoux — don’t miss discovering a new experimental site… It is an instrumented agroforestry experimental research site managed by the Joint Research Unit (INRA-UL) for Forest Ecology and Ecophysiology (EEF) in close collaboration with the Joint Research Unit (INRA-UL) Agronomy and Environment Laboratory (LAE). Its installation began one year ago as part a project funded by LabEx ABRE, Agro-TCR.

What is agroforestry?
Agroforestry is defined as an intensive land management system that optimizes the benefits from the biological interactions created when trees and/or shrubs are deliberately combined with crops and/or livestock. This innovative practice is emerging in the European agricultural context as a way to promote ecologically diversified farming systems.

What is the objective of the project?
The objective is to establish an instrumented plantation associating nitrogen-fixing species (alder, alfalfa) with economically viable species (poplar, wheat) planted on an agricultural plot on the experimental farm La Bouzule in the town of Amance. The 5-hectare plantation consists of strictly ‘forest’ plots (pure poplar, pure alfalfa, mixed aspen/alder), strictly agricultural plots (pure wheat, pure alfalfa) and agroforestry plots associating trees with agricultural crops (mixed poplar/alfalfa, mixed alder/wheat) to evaluate the fertilizing effect of nitrogen fixatives versus non-fixatives. Additionally, two herbaceous cover mixtures were planted in plots composed solely of trees to estimate their effect on the growth of trees, and vice versa, as well as the effect the plantation has on the overall diversity of plant association and its dynamics during the plantations operational period. This last objective aims to study ways to compensate for two negative aspects of the highly discredited monocultures: their low biodiversity and their impact on the landscape.

While full instrumentation of the experimental site is currently ongoing, the site has already includes a weather station for continuous measurements of atmospheric moisture levels and temperature, and sensors have been placed at varying depths in the different plots to track changes in the moisture and temperature of the soil.

What are the challenges?
The experimental site challenges are threefold, as it is at once an experimental research site, a site used for student training and a functioning showcase for Lorraine farmers who have questions or concerns about the technical feasibility of these systems.

Still in its construction phase, within the next few years this experimentation site may prove to be an important support for numerous projects and research partnerships.

Learn More ..

• Download the project brochure : Agro-TCR Agroforestry Project