Agricultural and Forestry Production

Production systems must be reworked in a global setting that is constantly shifting, marked as it is by environmental change, land use, resource scarcity, the collapse of biodiversity, and the transformation of markets, practices, and consumption patterns. These shifts must also take into consideration the multifunctional nature of agriculture and forestry, which are called upon to contribute to a variety of objectives, including feeding the world, maintaining biodiversity and proper ecosystem functioning, employment, the production of wood and biomaterials, and the provision of bioenergy and biomolecules. Research in this field has to account for both public policy concerns and the economic and social performance of created systems—at the scale of individual units as well as that of entire industries.  

AgroParisTech is interested in the biological functioning of animals, plants, and microorganisms that make up agricultural and forestry systems. The ways they function are addressed in all their complexity, considering various levels of biological organization (from cells to ecosystems and from individuals to populations at large), interactions between living beings, and their adaptability to contrasting and fluctuating environments. Biodiversity is an objective in its own right, with the aim being not just to preserve ecosystems, but also to support robust animal and plant productions. Thanks to genome engineering and predictive and synthetic biology, animal, plant, and microbial biotechnologies are also harnessed to enhance production processes.