Valentin Pret

I’m excited to share that I have started a new position as a #Postdoctoral Researcher at #CIRAD, within the SELMET research unit, working on the SLAM-B project. Over the next two years, I will develop a generic conceptual model of livestock systems for territorial modelling.

Farm motorization and expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa lead farmers to intensify legume cropping systems - Agronomy for Sustainable Development In certain Sub-Saharan African countries, a transition is underway that involves increased motorization and herbicide use. This study is the first to investigate whether these recent changes are trans...

Lairez, J., Bakker, T., d’Anfray, A. et al. Farm motorization and expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa lead farmers to intensify legume cropping systems. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 46, 9 (2026).
doi.org/10.1007/s135...
#AgroecologicalTransition #FamilyFarming

Can soil-crop models mostly tested in temperate conditions be relevant under tropical conditions to simulate long-term #soilorganiccarbon #yields? A study based on 4 trials in Kenya 🇰🇪 @mcorbeels.bsky.social @gatienfalconnier.bsky.social @johansix.bsky.social

authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

New #openaccess paper from the PhD thesis of @souleymanejules.bsky.social 👏 !

We monitored during 2 years surface albedo in conventional tillage, no tillage, & no tillage with mulch (maize residues) at 2 long-term experiments in Zimbabwe, and having 2 different soil types:
doi.org/10.1016/j.st...

La Une de Libération du 18 juillet 2025. Versus la Mer de Glace en 1950.

#IPCC's 2022 #ClimateReport shows heatwaves in Europe will become more frequent, more intense & will last longer.

By 2050, about half of the European population may be exposed to high or very high risk of heat stress during summer.

➡️ bit.ly/IICpt13

@ketanjoshi.co provides a very helpful alternative figure as a rejoinder to the primary energy graph in my first post in this thread...

bsky.app/profile/keta...

Warming accelerates global drought severity - Nature Increased atmospheric evaporative demand in recent years has increased drought severity by an average of 40% globally across both dry and wet regions, and the trend is likely to continue under future ...

Earlier this year, Chen et al. @science.org showed that droughts are intensifying globally, with warming. www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.ado4245,
Now, Gebrechorkos et al. @nature.com confirms the same findings. Very important work, but not wholly novel doi.org/10.1038/s415...

@souleymanejules.bsky.social

"These techniques are all however considered more expensive or energy-intensive than cutting emissions in the first place by burning fewer fossil fuels"

Last week I defended my 'Habilitation à diriger des Recherches'

Thanks to those who attended!

Thanks to the fantastic jury: L.Alletto A.METAY L.Hossard L.Bell R.Zougmore G.Martin G. Corre-Hellou

The slide deck:
lnkd.in/g-eJik8P

The HDR manuscript:
lnkd.in/gF4XcmnU

Cropping season over in Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 ! After cowpea a few weeks ago, maize 🌽 has now been harvested at our rainfall exclusion site at the University of Zimbabwe @cirad.bsky.social. Yields will for sure be much higher than during the once-in-century El Nino drought last year.

So exciting to see our commentary out! With a super team of Yean-Uk Kim of @zalf.bsky.social, @alexruane.bsky.social of @agmip.bsky.social and @robertfinger.bsky.social, we outline needed advances for more robust risk assessments of cropping systems.

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Great work by PPS colleagues: Intensifying legumes with phosphorus fertiliser and inoculants in smallholder fields increases yields and reduces weed pressure, enabling greater resilience to weeding delays and more flexible farm management

shorturl.at/SnHYu

AgMIP10 April 2 Plenaries (ENG) YouTube video by AgMIP

Low yielding and low data in smallholder farming systems is not a question of fate.

I was able to talk on the topic at the last #AgMIP10 conference

youtu.be/gAAFJtg2Qb0?...

L’obscurantisme de l’excellence La loi sur la recherche risque de favoriser les «meilleurs» laboratoires en créant des grosses structures. Or des études prouvent qu’il est plus efficace de diversifier les financements.

"Le moins que l’on puisse dire, c’est que la doctrine de l’excellence scientifique ne suit pas une démarche scientifique." www.liberation.fr/debats/2020/...

📢 Great postdoc (3 years) opportunity in our group @cirad.bsky.social in the FairCarboN #ALAMOD project to coordinate a modeling excercice @agmip.bsky.social on #soilorganicmatter and nitrogen dynamics in tropical cropping systems.
Deadline: 08/05/25

recrutement.cirad.fr/job/job-rese...

Transdisciplinary coordination is essential for advancing agricultural modeling with machine learning Crop models play a key role in understanding and improving the climate-change resilience of food systems. If appropriately used, machine learning can help tackle some of the critical challenges of agr...

Transdisciplinary coordination is essential for advancing agricultural modelling with machine learning. The opportunities are great, but to avoid pitfalls, we need to establish benchmarks, evaluation criteria and best practices. Our perspective: www.cell.com/one-earth/fu... @cp-oneearth.bsky.social

Convergence and consensus In these days of political instability, geopolitical tensions, and social discontent around the world, there are continued threats to the principles, conduct, and findings of science. This assault on ...

Interesting opinion in Science suggesting to replace 'scientific consensus' with convergent evidence.

Because it is less easily derailed by quoting one dissenting opinion.

Seems like a good idea!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Narrowing the ecological yield gap to sustain crop yields with less inputs Sustainable production of sufficient and healthy food requires efficient use of agricultural inputs. In many regions of the world with intensive agric…

In a new paper, we propose the 'ecological yield gap' as a framework to strengthen collaboration between agronomists and ecologists in our quest to enhance on-farm ecosystem services in ways that effectively sustain crop yields while minimising input use:
doi.org/10.1016/j.gf...
🧪🌱🌾🧑‍🌾🐞💚🤎

📢 New #PhD offer. You have a MSc degree in agronomy, soil science or plant ecophysiology AND you are from Kenya? This offer might be for you.

"Contribution of #agroforestry systems 🌳 🌽 🥑 🐐 to provisioning ecosystem services, #climatechange adaptation and mitigation in Kenya"

Deadline: 31.05.2025.

Could drought and poor soil undermine the performance of intercropping ?

Our study in semi-arid Zimbabwe found that the benefits of intercropping are maintained even with water and N stress.

doi.org/10.1016/j.fc...

Congrats Illiana Kwenda - A nice combination of field experiments and modelling

Statistical approaches are inadequate for accurate estimation of yield potential and gaps at regional level - Nature Food Yield potential estimates from statistical models and process-based crop models are compared across diverse climates and soil conditions. The findings reveal limitations of statistical methods, unders...

Check out this paper just published by our colleague Antoine Couëdel @cirad.bsky.social in @naturefood.bsky.social

Statistical approaches are inadequate for accurate estimation of yield potential and gaps at regional level
www.nature.com/articles/s43...

🌍 We hosted the 10th #AgMIP Global Workshop at #CIMMYT, where global leaders tackled urgent conversations! From science & policy to crop modeling, we’re advancing #FoodSecurity and a #Sustainable future. 🌱

Guidelines for improved quantification and reporting of carbon stocks and additional carbon storage in agroforestry systems - Agroforestry Systems The number of scientific publications related to biomass carbon or soil organic carbon under various land management practices has globally and dramatically increased during the last two decades, the ...

Carbon #sequestration in #agroforestry 🌳 🌽 🥑 🐄 is a hot topic.
Here we provide #openaccess guidelines to improve the quantification & reporting of carbon stocks in #soils & #biomass & additional #carbon storage in agroforestry systems, and to maximize manuscript acceptance.
doi.org/10.1007/s104...

Interested in participatory approaches and spatial modelling applied to smallholder farming system? ➡️ we have a PhD opportunity in the #GALILEO project on #agroforestery for #climatechange resilience! 🌍🧑‍🌾🌳🌽

📅Deadline : 11 May 2025

📝Modalities : gaia.umontpellier.fr/documents/SU...

#AgMIP10 officially launched this morning, but we hosted seven pre-workshop Side Meetings yesterday, including the GGCMI, Wheat, Ozone, Global Econ, Low-Input, and Calibration #AgMIPTeams.

#Agmip10 Understanding of nutrient soil supply is key to design relevant srategies for fertility management in smallholder system

We are kick-starting a new Agmip intercomparison to asses how well models deal with soil organic matter mineralisation

#JustOut #openaccess Combining two years of on-farm experiments & modeling with the STICS soil-crop model, we showed that land productivity benefits of maize-cowpea #intercropping can be maintained in conditions of high water and nitrogen stress @gatienfalconnier.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1016/j.fc...

A few aerial pictures from some of our on-farm experiments and demo plots in Murehwa & Mutoko districts, 🇿🇼. Beautiful landscape as always in 🇿🇼 🤩! #intercropping #mulch #manure #fertilizers #RAIZ_project @cirad.bsky.social @cimmyt.bsky.social @gatienfalconnier.bsky.social @kelvinchipoyi.bsky.social