18th Congress of the European Society for Agronomy

Multi-actor strategy to screen lentil landraces for organic agriculture in Lyon metropolitan area

Aug 30, 2024, 9:45 AM

15m

Salle 13 (1st floor) (The Couvent des Jacobins)

Oral Synergies between researchers, society and farmers Agro-ecological transitions at the landscape and territorial levels (assessments): carbon cycle

Speaker

Lucile Sainmont

Description

1. Introduction
   Providing solutions to facilitate agro-ecological, dietary and energetic transitions is a way to limit consequences of the climate change. Due to their ability to fix nitrogen in the soil and their nutritional qualities, pulses are crops that can contribute to these transitions. However, the poor varietal offer in pulses is an obstacle to increase their cultivation, especially for lentils (Lens culinaris Medik.). The main lentil cultivar is Anicia: obtained in 1966, it represents up to 80% of the French lentil production (Terre Univia, 2022). Participatory variety selection may lead to an improvement of varietal offer for underutilized crops (Chable et al., 2014; FAO, 2011).
   Lyon is one of the cities with the highest increase of temperatures in the South of France: hence, between 1980 and 2009, the climate changes from temperate humid to submediterranean (Lelièvre et al., 2011). In the metropolitan area, various actors including the Metropolis of Lyon, carry a strong political will to screen lentil varieties in order to enlarge the varietal offer and be able to provide nutritious organic pulses to collective restaurants.
   The aim of this study is to conduct a multi-criteria evaluation of numerous lentil varieties to select those best suited to the many challenges facing the Metropolis of Lyon.

2. Materials, methods
   This project involves several types of actors: researchers, CRBA (Centre de Ressources de Botanique Appliquée, an associative seed bank), Metropolis of Lyon, the Pauline & Valérie Mercan Foundation, farmers, catering professionals and healthcare professionals.
   The first step of the project is to collect varieties from seed banks (IPK genebank, GEVES, INRAE, ProSpecieRara, CRBA). The received samples were cultivated in order to multiply and screen the varieties. Participatory meetings have been organized to identify agronomical and nutritional traits of interest. The chosen agronomical traits were characterized according to established protocols (Ahmad et al., 2021; UPOV, 2015). In the second year of the project, a mother-baby trial has been set up in several on-farm experimental sites according to the methodology developed by Snapp (2002) to select lentils adapted to the various microclimates corresponding to the farms located in the experimental area.

3. Results
   110 lentil samples were collected from seed banks and evaluated according to their seed phenotype and distance from their origin center of cultivation. Among them, 35 varieties, representative of the observed diversity, were sown and evaluate in field in 2023, leading to the identification of five different clusters (PCA analysis). The most discriminating traits were the color of the grain, the time of flowering and the yield.
   Finally, 14 varieties have been collected in sufficient quantity to integrate a mother-baby trial in 2024 (figure 1). In addition, five control varieties provided in large quantity by partner farmers and ProSpecieRara have been sown in the five on-farm experimental sites.

4. Discussion
   The initial varieties have been pre-selected, particularly from an agronomic point of view, thanks to this first original screening. They are now going to be assessed for morphologic and agronomic traits but also for nutritional traits (analyses of proteins, fibers, minerals, trace elements) which will help to identify varieties and maybe ideotypes corresponding to the criteria of the project’s stakeholders. Moreover, the developed methodology will be applied to other pulse crops (peas and beans).

5. References
   Ahmad, N. S., Moradi, N., Rafaat, J. G., & Mohammed, D. J. (2021). Genetic Variability and Heritability Estimates of Agronomic Traits in Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.). Romanian Agricultural Research, 38, 9‑20. https://doi.org/10.59665/rar3802
   Chable, V., Dawson, J., Riccardo, B., & Goldringer, I. (2014). Seeds for Organic Agriculture : Development of Participatory Plant Breeding and Farmers’ Networks in France. Organic Farming, Prototype for Sustainable Agriculture, 383‑400. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7927-3_21
   FAO (2011). Deuxième plan d’action mondial pour les ressources phytogénétiques pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture.
   https://doi.org/10.17180/MEZ5-YV03
   Lelièvre, F., Sala, S., Ruget, F., & Volaire, F. (2011). Evolution climatique du Sud de la France 1950-2009, Projet CLIMFOUREL PSDR-3. Série Les Focus PSDR3.
   Snapp, S. (2002). Quantifying Farmer Evaluation of Technologies : The Mother and Baby Trial Design.
   UPOV (2015). Lentille—Principes directeurs pour la conduite de l’examen de la distinction, de l’homogénéité et de la stabilité.