Varieties and climate change: at the heart of the INVITE project
The adaptation of varieties to climate change is at the heart of GEVES’ concerns. This topic is particularly worked on in the H2020 INVITE project, especially for maize.
In the framework of this research program, GEVES is participating in an evaluation network coordinated by the INRAE LEPSE unit. In 2022, this network included 15 test situations, including 4 monitored by GEVES at its Magneraud station (17) and at the INRAE Diascope experimental unit in Mauguio (34).
This network, conducted on a European scale, will allow to explore a diversity of behaviors in various environments in terms of evaporative demand and temperature, but also in terms of water avaibility, thanks to the addition of contrasting irrigation levels on some sites, such as Magneraud and Mauguio. The objective is to develop tools and methods (phenotyping, envirotyping) that will forward allow the identification of the best performing varieties in VCUS trials under different hydric and thermic stress scenarios.
