Ecosystem services of miscanthus to restore water quality and soil fertility – MisEauVert

Water catchment areas devoted to human consumption are threatened by pollution that may be of agricultural, industrial or even domestic origin, which may lead to the final closure of drinking water catchments. At the same time, some cultivated soils have lost their organic matter content, in particular due to the reduction of organic resources in areas where livestock farming has virtually disappeared, which ultimately leads to a loss of soil fertility. The transition of agricultural systems must reverse these trends and agriculture can become regenerative by participating in the regeneration of common goods such as water and soil.
Miscanthus, a perennial grass that does not require chemical inputs except early crop weeding, would accelerate the restoration of water quality by its growing in water catchment areas (WCA). Targeted contaminations are nitrates and pesticide residues (active ingredients and processing products) which remain problematic in many WCA. The valorization of miscanthus straw by farmers located around the catchment area, in litter then organic amendment, would generate a circularity of the bioeconomy at the scale of the territory. But since only one clone is grown for this recent crop in France, the enlargement of varietal offer is required.
In this context, four units of the National Research Institute for Agriculture, food and the Environment (BioEcoAgro, EcoSys, HYCAR and IJPB) and the private company Novabiom have combined their complementary skills (agronomy, ecophysiology, hydrological transfers, modeling and genetics) to propose the final project MisEauVert, which is entitled: “Ecosystem services of miscanthus to restore water quality and soil fertility”. It is intended to highlight the ecosystem services of miscanthus to preserve water quality and restore soil fertility.
Thus, miscanthus was introduced in 2022 in the WCA of Vernouillet near Dreux under the impulse of the Seine-Normandie water agency and the agglomeration community «l'Agglo du Pays de Dreux» and will serve as a study object. The project is structured around four scientific activities:
- Miscanthus production in the water catchment area
- Protection of soil and water in the water catchment area
- Cascading use of miscanthus biomass based on animal litter and organic amendment
- Development of tools and genitors to expand the variety supply.
Besides project management, a last activity deals with a global analysis of the project’s added value and impact as well as establishing synergies between the stakeholders (scientific experts, company, farmers, local authorities and water agencies) with different interests and cultural backgrounds, which is needed to develop an efficient research-action partnership at the level of agricultural territories.