LOFS
Loire Valley Observatory for Food Security
The French Living Lab is based in the Val de Loire (Loire Valley), in the bioclimatic area of the Atlantic Arc. It is a French natural area crossing two regions, the Centre-Val de Loire and the Pays de la Loire.
Shaped by centuries of interaction between the river, the land it irrigates and the populations that have settled there throughout history, it is exceptional for its fauna, its flora and its mosaic of climates, soils, reliefs and orientation, which have earned it its inclusion since 2000 on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a living cultural landscape.
About us
The agricultural sector faces significant challenges: feeding populations, preserving biodiversity, supplying energy, and meeting health and environmental standards, all while dealing with limited land and resources, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and coping with climate hazards. To address these issues, a shift towards a more sustainable food system is necessary. This project produces and studies adaptative scenarios to understand and quantify the impacts of future climate change on the plant sectors in the Loire Valley. It aims to identify factors affecting food security and provide policy recommendations, with a focus on involving farmers and producers in strategic decision-making. Additionally, the project seeks to build a strong network for resilient and cohesive agriculture.
Lead contact
Emeline GARNIER – Project Manager at VEGEPOLYS VALLEYEmail emeline.garnier@vegepolys-valley.eu
Location
In the two regions Centre-Val de Loire and Pays de la Loire, agriculture accounts for around 70% of the land surface, for both crop and livestock production. The Centre-Val de Loire region specializes in crop production (cereals, animal feed crops and rapeseed), while the Pays de la Loire is more diversified, with a long history of fruit and vegetable production. Livestock farming is also well developed here, and forage requirements are high. Mushroom production is important in both regions, with the main national producers present in the area.
Partners
Partners & Expertise
The LOFS Living Lab is made up of 5 partners:
Vegepolys Valley is a French competitiveness cluster which brings together 600 stakeholders of the plant ecosystem to strengthen their competitiveness. From its Angers headquarters and thanks to its presence on 6 other sites (in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Brittany, Centre-Val-de-Loire and Pays de la Loire), the cluster mobilizes 40 FTE employees for more than 600 members: companies, research and training centers, professional unions, development organizations and consular chambers.
Arvalis is an applied agricultural research organisation focusing on agronomic, technological, and economic research on cereals, maize, sorghum, potato, fiber flax, and fodder crops. The organization is run and financed by farmers, and it is also 27 experimental stations covering all French regions to better address farmers' concerns. It provides a full range of knowledge, techniques, educational and decision support tools, and practical demonstrations to improve the multiperformance of the French cropping systems.
The Chamber of Agriculture is a public body. n the service of the farmers and of the departmental and regional agriculture, administered by an assembly of elected farmer representatives. The network of Chambres d’Agriculture des Pays de la Loire is involved in agricultural policies, applied research, advice, and support numerous groups of farmers.
The Institut de l'Elevage (IDELE) is an applied research and technical innovation development institute recognized at French and European scale. Its mission consists in improving the competitiveness of livestock farms and their sectors. Its work provides technical solutions for cattle, sheep and goat breeders, as well as for the economic players in their sectors, with the aim of producing quality food. One of the challenges is also to provide answers to societal questions and current issues like climate change mitigation and adaptation, autonomy, diversification and feed animal efficiency, biodiversity.
France Champignon is a producer and processor of button mushrooms. It is a completely integrated sector with the production of compost (growing medium), cultures of button mushrooms in air-conditioned culture chambers, the manufacture of frozen and canned mushrooms (35,000 T / year) and the marketing of fresh mushrooms (1st range - 2,500 T/year). France Champignon has the means to carry out tests in the context of developing new products or improving processes. It has 7 production and processing sites located in the Loire Valley, which employ 400 to 500 people.
Objectives
Living-Lab to adapt the specific agricultural productions of the Loire Valley to climate change and guarantee the region's food security:
Identify factors that affect food security in the Loire Valley, via modeling and testing climate change adaptation scenarios on 5 productions with farmers and stakeholders in the territory.
Implement a prospective reflection approach by identifying action levers and facilitating the appropriation of realities by stakeholders in the Loire region's sectors
Produce strategic orientations and recommendations for adaptation to climate change, particularly for public authorities, via a close link with the ECO-READY Observatory
Partners contribution to the project
Vegepolys Valley covers the entire plant value chain from genetics to use (Plant breeding, Plant and soil health, Farming equipment, Digital and AgTech, Seeds and young plants, Aromatic and medicinal plants, Crops (cereals), Vegetables and fruits, Ornamental plants, Cider and wine production, Feed and food, Nutrition, prevention, health, well-being and cosmetics, Agri-supply, Urban farming, etc.). It will mobilize its members around 7 innovation axes and offer services related to innovation, business growth, internationalization, networking, CSR or even communication.
Arvalis operates from the field scale to post-harvest stages and first processes. In the project Arvalis does focus on the cereal and wheat sectors working specifically on common wheat and rapeseed.
The Chamber of Agriculture engages in this project on the rapeseed and the fruits and vegetable sectors working specifically on rapeseed and lettuce (leafy greens)
Idele with its 300 employees spread throughout France produces in close collaboration with its partners technical documents and tools for technicians and breeders based on the latest research findings. In this project the focus will be on the animal feed crops sector working specifically on meadow/herbs for milk production.
France Champignon with its 7 production and processing sites covering the whole mushroom chain involving composting, cultivation, production, processing, marketing, labeling, shipping, and service activities will focus in this project specifically on button mushroom.
