Agriculture needs to respond to economic and environmental demands that challenge current production methods and practices. Managing the costs of production in an era of unprecedented rises in the cost of raw materials means reducing inputs and employing new fertilisation methods.

Now more than ever, reducing the pressure on the environment is one of the key aims of production. The "Grenelle de l'Environnement" (French government environmental forum) has strengthened existing legislation (e.g. with the Nitrates Directorate and the Water Act) and encouraged producers to take steps (e.g. with the Products Charter) and the mass distribution sector to impose its own measures (Globalgap® standards, Nature Choice etc.).

Water and fertilisers are central to the problems that the sector needs to resolve within the context of sustainable agriculture so as to ensure both productivity and protection of natural resources. Responding to these challenges and to the needs of the sector, CTIFL, in collaboration with its scientific and technical partners, is preparing benchmarks and decision-making tools based on technical improvements that have already become essential in this new environment in which we find ourselves.

9.00am - Participant welcome

9.15am - Water and fertilisers in vegetable crops: a new era for production and new challenges
O.Brunner - Loire Bretagne Water Agency

9.30am - Managing nitrogen

• Crops in soil and examples of the rationales behind fertilisation practices using the PILazo® method on strawberries and leeks
  C.Raynal - CTIFL
  
• Soil-less crops
  S.Le Quillec - CTIFL
  

10.15am - Choice of preceding crop - experiments with green fertilisers in organic farming
C.Porteneuve - CTIFL / SECL

Questions

10.45am - Phosphorus fertilization: presentation of an innovative method to analyse phosphorus requirements
P.Denoroy, C. Morel - INRA, ENITAB, TCEM Bordeaux

11.00am - Water management in vegetable crops: current techniques and ways forward

• A look at the state of open-field vegetable crops
  S.Picault - CTIFL
  
• Water management in soil-less greenhouse crops
  S.Le Quillec - CTIFL
  
• An experiment in trickle irrigation in leek crops
  S.Mevel- CDDM
  

Questions

12.00pm Conclusion