About the conference

General objectives

Variety mixtures, heterogeneous populations and species co-cultivation (for example cereal–legume associations) are increasingly recognised as key levers for agroecological transition. These approaches can substantially reduce reliance on pesticides and synthetic fertilisers while improving yield stability under growing climatic uncertainty.
This conference aims to bring together the international scientific community engaged in research on crop diversification. The event will showcase the latest scientific advances in crop mixtures and foster dialogue among international research groups working on varietal and species diversification. It also seeks to strengthen the interdisciplinary collaborations needed to explore emerging scientific questions and to address the technical, agronomic and socio-economic challenges limiting the wider adoption of these practices.

Originality

The main originality of the conference lies in its interdisciplinary nature and its use of the concept of ‘mixture’ to bring together communities that rarely meet: geneticists, ecophysiologists, economists, agronomists, pathologists, epidemiologists, etc. To this end, the conference is organised as follows: i) a first plenary day, organised around keynote speakers who will represent the different disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches developed on mixtures; ii) seven parallel sessions, more disciplinary in nature, will cover the main current scientific fronts raised by these subjects of study; iii) workshops will be held on the last day, providing an opportunity to mobilise this interdisciplinarity.

The first plenary day will be filmed and videos of the speakers will be broadcasted and made available for distribution.

International ambition

Eight keynote speakers have already responded to our request for contributions. Among them, Aurélien Tellier (Technical University of Munich, evolutionary genetics), Maria Finckh (Kassel University, agroecological crop protection), and Niels Anten (Wageningen University, plant and weed ecology) are working on topics related to plant and environmental protection. The presentations by the other keynote speakers will help build interdisciplinary bridges with the priorities of other disciplines: Piter Bijma (Wageningen University, quantitative genetics), Nico Eisenhauer (Jena-Halle-Leipzig, University of Leipzig, relationships between diversity and ecosystem functioning), Jochem Evers (ecophysiological modelling, Wageningen University), Henrik Hauggaard-Nielsen (actor-driven, socio-ecological approaches, Roskilde University in Denmark), Philippe Baret (UC Louvain, innovation and transition processes).

We expect between 200 and 300 people to attend, with good European coverage thanks to the involvement of two European projects: IntercropVALUES and IPMORAMA. The theme of the impact of diversification on crop health and the sustainability of resistance, which will be addressed at this conference from both disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, should attract a large community of plant pathologists (around 100 people are expected to attend). Scientists from southern countries may also be involved, particularly through CIRAD collaborators. Other countries will also be represented, notably China through the joint laboratory Plantomix (YAU-INRAE). Strong support from the ANR PPR CPA MoBiDiv project community will also ensure the involvement and participation of numerous French teams and their main collaborators.

The conference is being coordinated by Jean Benoit Morel (INRAE-PHIM of Montpellier) and Jérôme Enjalbert (INRAE-GQE of Paris Saclay).