Companies talk about it

Laurent Largant

 

 

 

 

 

Laurent Largant

General Delegate of Afaïa

(Professional Union of the actors of the sector of the supports of culture, mulches, organic amendments, organic fertilizers and organic-minerals and biostimulants).

 

 

For several  decades, the work on substrates has focused on their physical properties (air retention, water retention, stability).

This research continues, for example via Ecol'eau Terreau project, supported by several members of Afaïa . Tools are available to producers on new parameters such as the diffusibility of air and water.

 

Other requests from horticulturists and consumers opened up new research fields. Among them:

• The demand for soil "usable in organic farming" has led manufacturers to incorporate organic fertilizers whose behaviour needs to be better known.This is the origin of the Optifaz project that has been supported by Afaïa since the beginning. More generally, the interest is on the living side of culture media: we are now talking about "biotised soils". This is an important area of research, in order to develop more efficient growing media combining organic fertilizers and biostimulants.

• The reduction of the environmental impact of growing media is part of the actions of Afaïa and it's members, with the commitments for Circular Agriculture. The reduction in the use of non-renewable materials has been going on for along time, and continues to be clarified, for example thanks to new LCAs (life cycle analyzes) on raw materials. We welcolme innovatives that put substrates at the heart of the pathways of progress for more sustainable horticulture.