Agriculture is now facing a major challenge: ensuring sufficient food production for a growing population whilst protecting the environment. To limit the expansion of agricultural land, a potential option is to increase crop density (plants sown per m²), which increases plant competition for resources (water, light, minerals), at the expense of yield. INRAE, Institut Agro and CNRS researchers have developed a selection model based on cooperation between plants sown at high density, which helps increase crop yield by using existing land. In this study, researchers created a theoretical parental selection model to formalise competitive relationships between plants in response to different selection arrangements. Researchers based their study on competition for light, using height as a marker for competition, for a cereal-type crop. (More information: https://umr-agap.cirad.fr/recherche/projets-de-recherche/scoop-cooperation-chez-les-plantes-cultivees).
Source: INRAE
