Christian Dupraz

French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) | INRAE · Centre de Recherche de Montpellier

Pruning tree roots in alley cropping systems (ACS) could reduce underground competition and thus increase crop productivity. However, these management operations impose a stress on the trees, increase production costs and given the complexity of ACS; they may not lead to an increase in crop yield. Thus, the objective of this study was to measure th...

Separation of water absorption by roots between trees and crops is critical to intercropping in water-limited regions. The current knowledge about interspecific water relationship is in one dimension, i.e., the vertical direction , little is known in both vertical and horizontal directions under different rainfall conditions. Therefore, an experime...

Introduction: Climate change (CC) and the increased occurrence of extreme climatic events pose a serious threat to crop yields and their stability worldwide. This study analyzed the CC mitigation potential of an alley cropping system on crop physiological stresses and growth as compared to a monoculture system. Materials and Methods: Growth of wint...

In the face of climate change, more frequent drought events are expected in the Mediterranean regions. Alley cropping is an agroforestry practice that represents a promising adaptation strategy to sustain yield productivity under drier conditions. However, the presence of trees limits the productivity of the intercrop by reducing light availability...

Multi-species systems include herbaceous mixtures (cover cropping, living mulches, intercropping), woody mixtures and herbaceous-woody mixtures, i.e., “agroforestry”. Agroforestry systems have particular potential to improve nitrogen (N) availability to both the tree and herbaceous components, and to increase N-conservation and recycling. This is a...

In agroforestry systems, the canopy of maturing trees progressively reduces the radiation available for the crop. Tree management practices such as pollarding can be used to restore the crop light availability. We monitored durum wheat, barley and pea yields during three consecutive years in an alley‐cropping agroforestry system with hybrid walnut...

Understanding the processes driving plant phenology is crucial for assessing how shifts in climate affect plant productivity and species’ distribution. Despite the key role of fine roots in carbon and nutrient cycling, root phenology is less well characterized than shoot phenology, due largely to methodological problems when measuring root systems...

This study is a contribution to the characterization of traditional agroforestry parklands in Lower Casamance. It aims at determining the diversity of species and the tree size structure in these parklands, as well as at identifying the threats to their sustainability, in order to assist decision making on natural resource conservation. To this end...

In Northern France where agriculture is generally productive, crop diversification and feedstuff autonomy are mean challenges for mixed farms located in lowland regions with "poor" soils. Due to limited yields and having already adopted lo-till and direct-seeding technics, farmers fear next pesticides’ range and use limitation. In response, the pes...

In low-forested agricultural areas where industrial crops dominate with the objective to maximize yield of every single hectare, setting up of Agroforestry systems (AFS) is often limited to less favoured soils. However, shift to a bioeconomy strategy in these territories expects new revenues from differentiating labels such as better net carbon bal...

Agroforestry, the intentional integration of trees with crops and/or livestock, can lead tomultiple economic and ecological benefits compared to trees and crops/livestock grown separately.Field experimentation has been the primary approach to understanding the tree–crop interactionsinherent in agroforestry. However, the number of field experiments...

Ce numéro est constitué d’articles de synthèse des projets DEPHY EXPE publiés à l’occasion du Colloque National DEPHY EXPE, qui s’est déroulé le 28 mai 2019 à l'Assemblée Permanente des Chambres d'Agriculture (Paris).

This chapter discusses biophysical processes that explain the ability of silvoarable agroforestry systems to maintain agricultural yields while providing a range of ecosystem services. Silvoarable systems are very flexible, and many management practices can be used within them by farmers to sustain crop yields for as long as possible. These include...

The book of abstract, as well as all the posters and the videos of the oral presentations are available here: https://agroforestry2019.cirad.fr/replay

The many benefits of agroforestry are well-documented, from ecological functions such as biodiversity conservation and water quality improvement, to cultural functions including aesthetic value. In North American agroforestry, however, little emphasis has been placed on production capacity of the woody plants themselves, taking into account their a...

It is often claimed that agroforestry could increase the total productivity per land unit compared to monocropping systems. The aim of this study was to evaluate, in a sub-humid Mediterranean climate, the behavior of the yield components, phenology, LAI and NDVI of durum wheat in an alley-cropping system. Our hypothesis was that the microclimate ch...

Light competition by trees is often regarded as a major limiting factor for crops in alley-cropping agroforestry. Northern latitude farmers are usually reluctant to adopt agroforestry as they fear that light competition will be fiercer in their conditions. We questioned the light availability for crops in alley-cropping at different latitudes from...

Tree root pruning in agroforestry could reduce water competition and increase the crop yield. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of tree root pruning on the yield of winter cereals in a mature Mediterranean alley cropping system considering crop phenology and the position in the alley. An experiment was conducted in a walnut alley cro...

In temperate alley cropping agroforestry systems, light competition often limits the crop yield. The trees pruning and particularly pollarding reduces this competition. This practice results in three productions on the same field: crop, fuel or others purposes wood and timber wood. To be profitable, pollarding must not affect too much the trunks gr...

Short abstract Tree root pruning in agroforestry could reduce water competition and increase the crop yield. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of tree root pruning on the yield of winter cereals in a mature Mediterranean alley cropping system considering crop phenology and the position in the alley. An experiment was conducted in a w...

Foreword. It is a great pleasure to share with you the excellent book of abstracts of the 4th European Agroforestry Conference carried out in the beautiful city of Nijmejen (The Netherlands) during the European Green Capital 2018. The book is plenty of extraordinary information and experiences about agroforestry practices and systems around the wo...

Climatic conditions drive plant metabolism and growth and their projections are used as drivers in modelling experiments for the prediction of crop yields. However, these are generally issued at regional scale, and do not consider microclimatic variations. In this study we question the impact of taking into account microclimate adjustments on simul...

This second edition of the book contains 12 chapters, which aims to: (1) to update existing chapters with the tremendous advances in temperate agroforestry knowledge that have come to light in the last 20 years; and (2) if possible, to add new global regional examples of temperate agroforestry. Several changes have been made to the second edition....

Agroforestry is an increasingly popular farming system enabling agricultural diversification and providing several ecosystem services. In agroforestry systems, soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks are generally increased, but it is difficult to disentangle the different factors responsible for this storage. Organic carbon (OC) inputs to the soil may be...

Introduction: Agroforestry systems are land use management systems in which trees are grown in combination with crops or pasture in the same field. In silvoarable systems, trees are intercropped with arable crops, and in silvopastoral systems trees are combined with pasture for livestock. These systems may produce forage and timber as well as provi...

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 comp...

A stumbling block to the adoption of silvoarable agroforestry systems is the lack of quantitative knowledge on the performance of different crops when competing for resources with trees. In North-Western Europe, light is likely to be the principal limiting resource for understorey crops, and most agronomic studies show a systematic reduction of fin...

Agroforestry systems (AFS) associate crops and trees in the same field. Soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks are generally increased in these systems but it is usually difficult to disentangle the factors responsible for this additional SOC storage. Higher organic carbon (OC) inputs – leaves, tree root senescence - can also enhance SOC decomposition, a...

Introduction In Wallonia, Belgium, almost half of the utilized arable agricultural area is managed applying a 4 year crop rotation. Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) remain amongst the most important crops, representing respectively 38 and 39% of the arable surface (Leteinturier et al., 2003). Traditionally, a winte...

Pollarding trees in agroforestry systems? Why and when? Implications in terms of woof production

Introduction Monocropping has proved its high performance under optimized conditions such as the provision of external resources. However these systems perform poorly when inputs are reduced (Altieri et al. 2015). Agroforestry belongs to the multiple cropping paradigm using plant interactions to increase or at least to maintain crop production with...

Introduction Monocropping has proved its high performance under optimized conditions such as the provision of external resources. However these systems perform poorly when inputs are reduced (Altieri et al. 2015). Agroforestry belongs to the multiple cropping paradigm using plant interactions to increase or at least to maintain crop production with...

Background and Aims Fine roots play a major role in the global carbon cycle through respiration, exudation and decomposition processes, but their dynamics are poorly understood. Current estimates of root dynamics have principally been observed in shallow soil horizons (<1 m), and mainly in forest systems. We studied walnut (Juglans regia × nigra L....

Introduction: Much attention has been paid to agroforestry systems these last decades as they combine food production and provide different ecosystem services such as erosion control, biodiversity enhancement, and climate change mitigation. However, the functioning of these systems and the services they provide mainly depends on belowground process...

Introduction Fine root dynamics control plant growth and development and play a major role in the global carbon cycle through the uptake of water and nutrients as well as respiration and decomposition processes. Fine root elongation rates and lifespan are in direct relation with soil water availability and soil temperature likely depending on seaso...

Introduction: Agroforestry systems, i.e., agroecosystems combining trees with farming practices, are of particular interest as they combine the potential to increase biomass and soil carbon (C) storage whilst maintaining an agricultural production. However, most present knowledge on the impact of agroforestry systems on soil organic carbon (SOC) st...

Agroforestry is a land use type where crops and trees are grown together in the same place and at the same time. Agroforestry systems have the advantage of providing multiple products (e.g. wood, fruits) or services (e.g. biodiversity enhancement, erosion control) whilst maintaining agricultural production. If they are known to store carbon into th...

Agroforestry is a land use type where crops and trees are grown together in the same place and at the same time. Agroforestry systems have the advantage of providing multiple products (e.g. wood, fruits) or services (e.g. biodiversity enhancement, erosion control) whilst maintaining agricultural production. If they are known to store carbon into th...

Background and aims Characterising the spatial distribution of tree fine roots (diameter ≤ 2 mm) is fundamental for a better understanding of belowground functioning when trees are grown with associated crops in agroforestry systems. Our aim was to compare fine root distributions and orientations in trees grown in an alley cropping agroforestry st...

There is a fundamental trade-off between leaf traits associated with either resource acquisition or resource conservation. This gradient of trait variation, called the economics spectrum, also applies to fine roots, but whether it is consistent for coarse roots or at the plant community level remains untested. We measured a set of morphological and...

The introduction of trees in cropland may be a way to improve the mineral nitrogen (N) use efficiency since tree roots can intercept N leached below the crop rooting zone and recycle it as organic N. The aim of this study was to determine soil mineral N (SMN) and total N (STN) contents after 14 years of hybrid walnut tree growth in an agroforestry...

1.There is a fundamental trade-off between leaf traits associated with either resource acquisition or resource conservation. This gradient of trait variation, called the economics spectrum also applies to fine roots but whether it is consistent for coarse roots or at the plant community level remains untested.2.We measured a set of morphological an...

il s'agit d'un type de produit dont les métadonnées ne correspondent pas aux métadonnées attendues dans les autres types de produit : REPORT

Context Current production from natural forests will not satisfy future world demand for timber and fuel wood, and new land management options are required. Aims We explore an innovative production system that combines the production of short rotation coppice in wide alleys with the production of high-value trees on narrow strips of land; it is an...