Autumn and winter work at Terres de Roumassouze

The various actions carried out have made it possible to structure the areas to improve the balance between the various crops and trees, while optimising the space for educational and experimental projects.

Last autumn, re-design workshops helped to define the layout of the market garden area. Working with farmers, technicians and researchers, a plan was drawn up to reorganise the space. Several actions were undertaken to clean up and reorganise the plots: pruning of poplars and paulownias, felling of certain trees, shredding of slash, opening up of the poplar coppice to the east, management plan for fruit trees, planting of new trees.

In winter, work continued on

• preparing the plots for research. The trees were pruned according to the specific needs of the different research methods (pollarded, pruned and control trees).
• Creation of the nursery. After harvesting the seeds, the team transplanted the future plants into the nursery.

Recently, the Agroof team has been working on the future rotation of the land. This plan includes integrated management of the various zones: nursery, cereal crops, market gardening and maybe wine-growing.

This work reflects a long-term vision for ensuring that the Terres de Roumassouze continues to be an exceptional site for agroforestry research at regional, national and even European level.