FIGARO DEMAIN – A farm is testing promising fruit, vegetable and cereal varieties for the future.
In Lyon
“Taste this sweet pepper from Hyères, it looks like a candyinvites Victor Durand, head of operations, grabbing the vegetable whose sweet flavor reveals a spicy touch on the finish. “We experience its adaptation to climate change, how it grows without fertilizer and without water.” Testing, observing and comparing unknown varieties of plants, such is the mission of the Vavilov station in Charly – the only branch outside Russia of the oldest seed bank in the world, based in Saint Petersburg.
Launched by the Center for Applied Botany Resources (CRBA) in 2019, this biodiversity laboratory, which the metropolis of Lyon intends to make a tool of its agricultural policy, preserves and experiments with thousands of varieties of plants to determine which ones will fill our plates tomorrow. , in a logic of food autonomy and adaptation to climate change. “The Rhône’s accompanying aquifer will lose 10% to 40% of its flow by 2050. We need less water-intensive species”, underlines Jérémy Camus, vice-president of the metropolis in charge of agriculture. But also resistant to hail, wind, disease and changing seasons.
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Unlike those created by the major seed companies, the varieties tested have been collected over the years by the CRBA, which first looked for lost endemic species, Lyon having been in the 19e century a major center of horticultural creation. “We have found the Lyonnais bean in Colombia!”, laughs Sabrina Novak, co-founder of the center. The black turnip from Caluire, the Roman squash from Ain or the melon from Pierre-Bénite are gradually reappearing in the fields. The challenge is to know which ones will best adapt to their native land in new climatic conditions.
Varieties forced to adapt
The center then turned to expeditions to other regions of the world, where “the temperature amplitudes are very strong”, in order to collect varieties that have been forced to adapt. “In Dagestan, temperatures range from -20°C in winter to +53°C in summer: some melons grow in this heat, that doesn’t exist in France.” The superb amaranth, a cousin of quinoa native to Peru, demonstrates remarkable resilience to hail.
Once collected, the seeds are tested on three criteria: cultivation without chemical inputs, resistance to hazards and nutritional qualities. Then the Melchior farm produces them on a small scale to study their yield. If their interest is confirmed – farmers, the general public and chefs have their say – the Melchior seed farm, opened a few months ago, 2 kilometers away, will reproduce “from seed to seed” seeds in large quantities.
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After six months to two years, depending on the variety, they are distributed – free of charge – to farmers wishing to explore these crops. Although it remains on a small scale, the project is set to grow, with the metropolitan ambition of deploying a network of seed farms on the territory and achieving 15% food self-sufficiency in the medium term.
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