The Saint-Sauvant test center, which was set up in 1994 to test the seeds marketed by Jouffray-Drillaud, is now a research facility where a dozen engineers and technicians, under the responsibility of Vincent Béguier, are preparing tomorrow's seeds. The selection work mainly involves forage and lawn grass species as well as so-called inter-culture species used for soil cover between two major crops. Over the past years, the Center has developed a large-scale research program on white lupins, an oilseed that produces very high-protein crops. In the late nineties, the first selection research on white lupins started at the INRA Lusignan Center (Vienne département). "We have long had close relations with the public research organization," said Vincent Béguier.
As INRA decided to stop research on the high-protein plant after in-house reorganization, the field was taken up by Jouffray-Drillaud. Today the company is the only white lupin plant breeder in France, as part of the Prolupin EIG (economic interest grouping). "By developing the species whose seed composition is similar to soy seed, we hope to make Europe self-sufficient for protein," stated the Saint-Sauvant facility head. Depending on the years, the crop covers 10,000 to 20,000 hectares in France, which is still not enough. So, the center team under Nathalie Harzic's leadership is continuing selection work to improve the species while the company is concurrently rolling out major efforts to promote white lupin in the French agricultural world.
Toward Increasingly Autonomous and Sustainable Systems
Selection work at Saint-Sauvant mainly involves forage species, including alfalfa, the 'star' species. The leguminous plant, which provides animals with proteins, has very high development potential. Indeed the Poitou-Charente region and the southern Loire country are undoubtedly the world's biggest production basins of alfalfa seeds. Jouffray-Drillaud is Europe's leading forage seed produce. "Every year we use cross-seeding and continue to improve our different alfalfa varieties, either their yield, disease resistance or different characteristics so they can been registered in official catalogues," explained Vincent Béguier. English ray-grass, orchard grass and tall fescue are also among the research center's flagship species. "For lawns, we are working on the same species, mainly ray-grass and tall fescue. The difference in this case is that we select species that are not widely grown unlike the species we are researching for forage production." The Saint-Sauvant team is also very interested in niche species, which have a very small in France but may have substantial environmental advantages.
Other reasons have prompted the Saint-Sauvant Center to work on reintroducing leguminous plants in the French agricultural area. Until the late fifties, these species served to provide the nitrogen required for farming soils. Since then, oil-based nitrogen inputs have been used for this. However, with rising oil barrel prices, leguminous plants, which have virtually disappeared from French soils, except for a few species such as peas or lupins, could eventually become prevalent. The team is also rethinking agronomy with a view to sustainable development. "This means reviewing the crop rotation system for improved soil protection with a goal of attaining increasingly autonomous and sustainable systems," underscored the agricultural scientist. The team recently began exploring different species to produce the large amounts of biomass required to make plant carbon, in 'sustainable' conditions, i.e., without using much water or inputs.
Exploiting Other Species
"We are at the infancy of a new era where the United States has a substantial lead. However, although we can draw on US research, I don't think we should copy it, as solutions developed abroad are not automatically adaptable to Europe because of the different weather conditions." The Americans are working mainly on grasses, such as switchgrass, that require a lot of water in the summer. But this solution does not seem appropriate for Europe, and specifically for France, due to the summer droughts this region of the world has been experiencing. That is why the Jouffray-Drillaud team has decided to focus on other species, i.e., species that are now grown for other purposes, or on new species stemming from prospecting nature or from genetic resource banks.
