Towards seed protection using biocontrol strategies

Position paper, fruit des echanges de l'atelier scientifique “ Semences et Biocontrole” du 2 octobre 2019 a Paris The French “Consortium public-prive Recherche-Developpement-Innovation sur le Biocontrole” and the “Groupement d’Interet Scientifique Biotechnologies Vertes” (GIS BV), both public-private groups, organized a scientific workshop on “Seeds and biocontrol: solutions for tomorrow’s agricultures” on October 2nd, 2019 in Paris. Seed biocontrol is an emerging research topic that could meet economic issues and environmental and societal expectations to reduce the use of chemical farm inputs and adapt agriculture practices to climate change. Seventy-eight scientists, including forty-five from the private sector joined this workshop in order to debate on the most promising research areas to address a successful implementation of biocontrol solutions. They unanimously agreed that effective biological control solutions will result from multidisciplinary approaches and require innovative in plant breeding developments. This article describes the current strengths of French research in an international context around seed and biocontrol and highlights the research priorities between the public and the private sectors, the upmost being transdisciplinarity for the benefit of future agricultures.