Sunflowers
Sunflowers offer an exceptional potential in constituting agri-chains, and are a core focus of the AgriMip Innovation cluster’s development strategy.
A crop traditionally grown in this region
Sunflowers represent a major development orientation for AgriMip Innovation, since this traditional crop in the region, has not yet been the focus of non-food research (unlike rapeseed), giving it broad development potential. The "high oil-content" variety is well-established in the region, which offers a favorable pedoclimactic and farm-practices context. In Midi-Pyrenees, 97,000 hectares are devoted to oil crops, involving 10,000 farmers. Applications of sunflower crops are diversifying both for food and industrial/energy applications.
Developing research to improve competitiveness
In order to achieve development, while continuing to respect the environment, sunflower farming needs to acquire a higher level of efficiency, through crop management, varietal selection and adaptation of the variety to the type of cropmanagement system. In 2004, INRA, ENSAT, ESAP, CETIOM, along with private seed breeders, ASEDIS-SO, SOFIPROTEOL, and the Midi-Pyrenees region decided to pool their resources, centering on a project in common, called Tournesol 2010. This involves reinforcing public agronomic research resources devoted to sunflower crops, in order to improve overall competitiveness within the next 5 to 10 years. AgriMip Innovation will play a key role in this project.