Agroscope - Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, Switzerland

Agroscope is the Swiss centre of excellence for agricultural research. It is affiliated with the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG). Agroscope makes an important contribution to a sustainable agriculture and food sector as well as to an intact environment, thereby contributing to an improved quality of life. Agroscope researches along the entire value chain of the agriculture and the food sector. Its goals are a competitive and multifunctional agricultural sector, high-quality food for a healthy diet and an intact environment. In pursuing these aims, the research institute gears itself to the needs of its service recipients. Agroscope at the Changins site focuses on basic and applied research in plant science, and our department especially on ecological intensification of field crops including wheat and potatoes.

Role in the project

Agroscope will be co-leader of work package 3 and involved more specifically in tasks 3.2 and 3.3. In task 3.2, Agroscope will contribute to the testing of various decision support tools and will manage several field trials with potatoes and bread wheat. The field trials will address several issues: (i) the advantages of using grain legumes as cover crops in the rotation to reduce the negative impact of water and N stress on yield and quality, and (ii) the assessment of the use of microbial inoculants in the field to increase the resilience of the crops against combined abiotic stress (mainly N and water deficit).

Key persons involved

• Brice Dupuis, Co-leader work package 3
• Juan Herrera
• Lilia Levy Häner