About
What’s a JTN?
The Joint Technology Network (JTN) is a partnership agreement introduced by the 2006 framework law on agriculture in France. These partnerships aim to develop wide-ranging working relationship between research, extension and training actors around topics with strong socioeconomic and environmental issues. JTN are funded by the CASDAR and follow by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
Key definitions
The Bestim JTN objective is to understand, develop and promote strategies for optimizing plant protection in an agroecological context, inlcuding biocontrols and biostimulants. Network members offer several definitions (only in French) linked to this topic on this glossary. Those definitions reflect various frameworks: regulatory, scientific and technical or commercial.
The proposed definitions in the regulatory framework may be more partitioned than biological reality.
Scientific terms
Defined and used terms by the scientific and technical community.
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Agroecology aims to promote sustainable food systems that respect people and their environment. These systems involve agricultural production methods and sectors that enhance the ecological, economic and social potential of a territory. Their development is based on transdisciplinary approaches bringing together professionals from the agricultural world, scientists, actors from the social movements of agroecology and public policies.
Agroecology is an alternative to intensive agriculture based on the artificialization of crops through the use of synthetic inputs (fertilizers, pesticides…) and fossil fuels. It promotes agricultural production systems that enhance biological diversity and natural processes (nitrogen, carbon and water cycles, biological balances between pests and crop helpers, etc.).
Agroecology is developing in the scientific field as an approach integrating concepts and methods from a variety of disciplines, including agronomy, ecology, economics and sociology. Aiming to promote the services provided by natural processes, it analyses at different levels (from the plot to the territory, from the individual to the community, from the short to the long term) the evolving relationships that are created within these systems between the living organism, its management method and the ecological, economic and social context of this management.
Source: Laurent Hazard, Claude Monteil, Michel Duru, Laurent Bedoussac, Eric Justes, Jean-Pierre Theau. 2016. Agroecology: Definition. Dictionary of Agroecology, Editions Quae https://dicoagroecologie.fr/encyclopedie/agroecologie/
Fertilisers developed and formulated from biomass. These biofertilisers may be organic or organo-mineral and may or may not contain micro-organisms.
Source: Adapted from the charter for the sustainable development of bioinputs in the Grand Est Region
All biocontrol solutions, biostimulants and biofertilisers.
Source: Adapted Charter for the sustainable development of bioinputs in the Grand Est Region
Pesticide of biological origin
The act of stimulating a living organism with a living substance or organism
Organic molecules with physico-chemical characteristics that allow them to be volatilized and transported in the air. Most pheromones and allelochemicals are VOCs. The most abundant VOCs in the atmosphere are those emitted by plants and micro-organisms
NB: VOCs include for example isoprenoids (isoprene and monoterpenes), alkanes, alkenes, carbonyls, alcohols, esters and fatty acids etc.
Source: Biocontrol, Elements for agroecological crop protection. X. Fauvergue, A. Rusch, M. Barret, M. Bardin, E. Jacquin-Joly, T. Malausa et C. Lannou. Ed Quae
The act of triggering a defence mechanism in an organism caused by the perception of a stimulus (a substance, a micro-organism or a stress).
A molecule produced by a pathogen or pest that directly induces a defence reaction in a plant; by extension, any molecule that triggers a defence mechanism with production of defensive substances. The elicitor may be released or carried by a pathogen or pest (exogenous elicitor) or produced by the plant itself under the action of a stimulus (endogenous elicitor).
Source: CEB-AFPP, 2011
Genome of a macro-organism (the host) and its associated micro-organisms (metagenome + macro-organic genome)
Source: Rodriguez R and Durán P (2020) Natural Holobiome Engineering by Using Native Extreme Microbiome to Counteract the Climate Change Effects. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 8:568. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2020.00568
A unit of biological organisation consisting of a host macro-organism and its microbiota. The plant is considered a holobiont since the importance of micro-organisms in certain functions has been demonstrated (symbiosis).
Source: Philippe Vandenkoornhuyse, Achim Quaiser, Marie Duhamel, Amandine Le Van and Alexis Dufresne. The importance of the microbiome of the plant holobiont. New Phytologist (2015) 206: 1196–1206.
A complex set of molecular mechanisms, governed by a large number of genes and regulated by multiple interactions, leading to the establishment of resistance to a biotic stress.
Source: adapté L’immunité des plantes, Edition QUAE, 2021
Concept aimed at promoting the physiological mechanisms that ensure the expression of an efficient immune system, protecting the plant from bio-aggressors while guaranteeing its optimal development in its environment. This concept requires a highly integrated approach at the plant and plot level, taking into account the pest population, host genetics, the entire technical itinerary (including the application of SDPs), climatic conditions and biotic interactions (particularly microbiota and service plants). The challenge is to understand the complexity of the interactions that condition plant immunity, and to exploit this knowledge in the field by proposing innovative cropping systems. These should ensure basic crop immunity while guaranteeing economically acceptable productivity. They will be able to use environmentally friendly SDP solutions, applied wisely, and the system can be supplemented by other alternative methods designed to reduce pest pressure, for example (biocontrol with a direct effect on pests, rotation, physical barriers, etc.).
Source: Perspectives Agricoles, déc 2021
Genomes of a microbiota (synonym = metagenome)
Source: L’immunité des plantes, 2021 – Editions Quae
A group of micro-organisms (bacteria, fungi, oomycetes and protists) associated with a habitat (microbial communities) forming communities of species that interact with each other and with the factors of the environment in which they live (human, animal, soil or plant). A distinction is made between beneficial and deleterious microbiota or pathobiota depending on whether the interaction with the host is positive or negative.
Source: Lebreton et Mougel, 2021. Plant-associated microbiota: a major challenge. Phytoma 747: 14-18.
Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria /Fungi= plant growth-promoting rhizospheric bacteria (PGPR) or soil-borne fungi (PGPF). PGPRs and PGPFs have phytostimulatory functions that improve plant growth and nutrition through hormonal mechanisms or increase the availability of mineral nutrients, and phytoprotective functions through antagonism, competition or systemic resistance induction.
Source: adapté de Vacheron et al., 2013 Vacheron, J., Desbrosses, G., Bouffaud, M.-L., Touraine, B., Moënne-Loccoz, Y., Muller, D., Legendre, L., Wisniewski-Dyé, F., & Prigent-Combaret, C. (2013). Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria and root system functioning. Frontiers in Plant Science, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2013.00356
It refers to the habitat provided by the aerial parts of plants.
Source: (Lindow & Brandl, 2003)
Plant hormones, also known as phytohormones, are natural organic substances that influence all physiological processes of plant growth, differentiation and development and give plants their ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. These are active substances that act at low concentrations. The major classes of phytohormones are auxins, cytokinins, gibberellins, brassinosteroids, abscisic acid, jasmonates and its derivatives, ethylene, salicylic acid, strigolactones and peptide hormones.
Source: Biologie végétale Croissance et développement 3e édition 2017 DUNOD
Edited by Jean-François Morot-Gaudry and Roger Prat*.
A substance or microorganism that enables a plant to trigger its defence mechanisms more quickly and/or more intensely following a biotic stress. This should be distinguished from an elicitor, which triggers defence responses in the plant as soon as it is applied, even in the absence of biotic stress.
The ability of the plant to be stimulated by the perception of signals. This notion implies that a plant can be more or less receptive, depending on its genetic potential, physiology, phenological stage, pedoclimatic context etc.
A substance or preparation which, when applied to all or part of a plant, acts on physiological mechanisms, particularly cell differentiation or elongation, without harming the plant from an agronomic point of view. This action is usually accompanied by a change in the morphology and structure of the plant.
Notes: The term substance is to be preferred to the term regulator, which is a misnomer because it evokes a regulatory action.
Source: index acta 2021
The ability of a living being to resist, in whole or in part, biotic or abiotic stresses.
Active process set up following the perception of a stimulus (product, micro-organism, environmental condition, etc.) which allows plants to express resistance to a wide range of biotic or abiotic stresses.
The rhizosphere is defined as the portion of soil that surrounds the roots and is under strong influence of the plant. It represents the interface between the plant and its underground environment.
N.B.: In plant and agronomic sciences, it is a compartment studied for its role in plant nutrition (in particular, absorption of minerals and water from the soil). The rhizosphere is also a zone of interaction with soil microorganisms.
Source: Adapted from https://osur.univ-rennes1.fr/news/une-plante-et-son-microbiote-rhizospherique-echangent-ils-des-microarns-pour-communiquer.html
The term “Plant Defence Stimulators”, PDS, is used to define any substance (chemical substances, natural extracts, microorganisms, etc.) that, when applied to a plant, is capable of promoting a significantly higher state of resistance to biotic stresses than an untreated plant. A PDS does not act directly on the pests, but is perceived by the plant as a warning message. The plant will react by preparing or setting up different defence mechanisms, which will make it more resistant to pest attacks. A product that is effective on a plant-bioaggressor pairing and does not have a noticeable direct effect on the latter at the dose that is effective on the plant, and that is capable of inducing known defence markers (PR proteins, lipoxygenase, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), phytoalexins, etc.) under these conditions, can be considered as an SDP.
This term should be preferred to SDN.
Source: RMT Elicitra, méthode CEB MG14, 2015
In biology, all the stress reactions of an organism subjected to non-optimal pedo-climatic constraints (thermal, hydric, saline, frost…)
All the stress reactions of an organism subjected to the action of another living organism such as a pathogen or pest (fungi, bacteria, insects, weeds)
A substance or preparation which, when applied to all or part of a plant, acts on physiological mechanisms, particularly cell differentiation or elongation, without harming the plant from an agronomic point of view. This action is usually accompanied by a change in the morphology and structure of the plant.
Notes: The term substance is to be preferred to the term regulator, which is a misnomer because it evokes a regulatory action.
Source: index acta 2021
The ability to withstand the negative effects of an external agent or stress (biotic or abiotic).
Regulatory
Terms defined according to the regulations in force on 07/04/2022
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Organic Agriculture is a production method that meets specific specifications, defined by the EU (regulation 2018/848) as ” a comprehensive system of agricultural management and food production that combines best environmental and climate action practices, a high degree of biodiversity, the preservation of natural resources and the application of high animal welfare standards, and high production standards that meet the demand of a growing number of consumers for products produced using natural substances and processes. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
In AB, the use of plant protection products is a last resort, after all the preventive methods available to the producer (biological control – use of non-GMO macro-organisms – prophylaxis, crop rotation, more resistant varieties, etc.).
NB: The list of plant protection products that can be used in AB is defined at the European level by Annex I of the EC Regulation n°2021/1165, modified by the EC implementing Regulation n°2022/xxx. So there are products in common with the Biocontrol list, but not all. For example, this list does not include herbicide use because, according to current regulations, weeds can only be managed by mechanical means. On the other hand, copper compounds are allowed in AB but are not on the Biocontrol list. This is also the case for UAB insecticides, natural pyrethrum, spinosad (except as soil granules) and neem extract.
Source: ITAB
official definition art L253-6 of the rural code: (A) Biocontrol corresponds to a set of crop protection methods that has been defined by the French Code rural et de la pêche maritime (article L-253-6) as “agents and products using natural mechanisms in the context of integrated pest management”. Four product categories are included in this biocontrol list:
– macro-organisms (insects, nematodes or mites which may be exotic or indigenous),
– micro-organisms (viruses, bacteria or fungi and their extracts),
– chemical mediators, such as pheromones and kairomones (mainly synthetic),
– products containing natural substances of plant, animal or mineral origin.
It should be noted that the term natural substances covers either any substance from a natural source or synthesised substances that are strictly identical to natural substances (e.g. pheromones). An official list of biocontrol products is regularly updated on the Ministry’s website (https://ecophytopic.fr/reglementation/proteger/liste-des-produits-de-biocontrole)
A product that stimulates the nutritional processes of plants independently of the nutrients it contains, for the sole purpose of improving one or more of the following characteristics of plants or their rhizosphere:
- a) Nutrient use efficiency;
- b) tolerance to abiotic stress ;
- c) qualitative characteristics ;
- d) the availability of nutrients confined to the soil or rhizosphere.
Source: Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 laying down rules for making EU fertilisers available on the market, amending Regulations (EC) No 1069/2009 and (EC) No 1107/2009 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003
Article L255-1 of CRPM:
Fertilizers” are products intended to ensure or improve plant nutrition or the physical, chemical and biological properties of soils. They include, in particular:
1° Fertilisers intended to provide plants with elements directly useful for their nutrition. These may be major or secondary nutrients or trace elements
Products intended to ensure or improve plant nutrition or the physical, chemical and biological properties of soils. They include, in particular:
1° Fertilisers intended to provide plants with elements directly useful for their nutrition. These may be major or secondary nutrients or trace elements;
2° Amendments intended to modify or improve the physical, chemical or biological properties of soils;
3° Materials, including biostimulants as defined in Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 laying down rules for making EU fertilisers available on the market, amending Regulations (EC) No 1069/2009 and (EC) No 1107/2009 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003 whose function, when applied to the soil or to the plant, is to stimulate natural plant or soil processes in order to facilitate or regulate the uptake of nutrients by plants, to improve their resistance to abiotic stresses or to improve the quality characteristics of plants. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Source: Article L255-1 of CRPM
Preparation composed exclusively of either basic substances or natural substances for biostimulant use as defined in Article 23 of Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and repealing Council Directives 79/117/EEC and 91/414/EEC It is obtained by a process accessible to any end user.
Preparations that may be composed of two types of substances, both of exclusively natural origin:
- Basic substances (plant protection action) defined and listed in Article 23 of the European Regulation 1107/2009 as well as in the Law of the Future for Agriculture, Food and Forestry (LAAF) of October 2014. To date (December 2017), 18 substances are recognised in this list. These include nettle, horsetail, vinegar, willow bark and sunflower oil.
- Natural substances for biostimulant use or SNUB (fertilising action) defined in a decree of the Minister of Agriculture in April 2016 and listed in an article D4211-11 of the Public Health Code. This article actually lists the medicinal plants or parts of plants that may be sold by persons other than pharmacists. More than 100 plants such as chamomile and mint are listed.
NPPs can be obtained by mixing one or more of the above-mentioned substances with water (e.g. maceration to obtain purins) or by reducing the plant to powder after drying it. Other manufacturing processes are possible. In all cases, the method of obtaining a PNPP will be simple and will require few resources because it must remain accessible to all.
Source: Article L253-1 of CRPM
Plant protection products (PPPs) are intended to: protect plants against harmful organisms or prevent their action; act on the vital processes of plants (insofar as they are not nutrients); ensure the preservation of plant products; destroy undesirable plants; destroy parts of plants, slow down or prevent undesirable growth of plants
https://ephy.anses.fr/produits-substances-usages/produits-phytopharmaceutiques
A substance or preparation which, when applied to all or part of a plant, acts on physiological mechanisms, particularly cell differentiation or elongation, without harming the plant from an agronomic point of view. This action is usually accompanied by a change in the morphology and structure of the plant.
Notes: The term substance is to be preferred to the term regulator, which is a misnomer because it evokes a regulatory action.
Source: index acta 2021
Natural defence stimulator = see definition SDP
The RMT Elicitra has defined the term SDP and recommends that it be used in preference to SDN to avoid the ambiguity associated with the word “natural” which can refer to defences or stimulation.
Substances defined in the framework of low concern natural preparations (LCNP) :
- Natural substances for biostimulant use or SNUB (fertilising action) defined in a decree of the Minister of Agriculture in April 2016 and listed in an article D4211-11 of the Public Health Code. This article actually lists the medicinal plants or parts of plants that may be sold by persons other than pharmacists. More than 100 plants such as chamomile and mint are listed.
The order of 14 June 2021 (pdf format – 126.9 kb – 28/06/2021) modifies the order of 27 April 2016 establishing the list of natural substances for biostimulant use. A natural substance for biostimulant use is either :
a substance mentioned in article D4211-11 (pdf format – 91.8 kb – 13/10/2021) of the public health code (medicinal plants or parts of plants);
from “consumable parts of plants used in animal or human nutrition that are part of the composition of a natural preparation of low concern that complies with the CDC PLANTES CONSOMMABLES specifications (pdf format – 592.2 kb – 28/06/2021)”.
Source: Article L253-1 of CRPM
N.B.: SNUBs are exempt from a marketing authorisation
Fertilizer that promotes plant nutrition and/or growth and/or development and/or resistance to abiotic stresses (indirect nutritional effect)
Source: Norme NF U 44-204 (3.7.3).
NB: These stimulators are part of the biostimulants
Substances defined in the framework of NPPs:
Preparation composed exclusively of either basic substances or natural substances for biostimulant use within the meaning of Article 23 of Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and repealing Council Directives 79/117/EEC and 91/414/EEC. It is obtained by a process accessible to any end user.
Source: Article L253-1 of CRPM
Preparations that may be composed of two types of substances, both of exclusively natural origin:
- Basic substances (plant protection action) defined and listed in Article 23 of the European Regulation 1107/2009 as well as in the Law of the Future for Agriculture, Food and Forestry (LAAF) of October 2014. To date (December 2017), 18 substances are recognised in this list. These include nettle, horsetail, vinegar, willow bark and sunflower oil.
- Natural substances for biostimulant use or SNUB (fertilising action) defined in a decree of the Minister of Agriculture in April 2016 and listed in an article D4211-11 of the Public Health Code. This article actually lists the medicinal plants or parts of plants that may be sold by persons other than pharmacists. More than 100 plants such as chamomile and mint are listed.
NPPs can be obtained by mixing one or more of the above-mentioned substances with water (e.g. maceration to obtain purins) or by reducing the plant to powder after drying it. Other manufacturing processes are possible. In all cases, the method of obtaining a PNPP will be simple and will require few resources because it must remain accessible to all.
A basic substance is a substance that :
(a) is not a substance of concern; and
(b) is not inherently capable of demonstrating endocrine disrupting effects, neurotoxic effects or immunotoxic effects; and
(c) the main purpose of which is not to be used for plant protection purposes, but which is nevertheless useful in plant protection, either directly or in a product consisting of the substance and a simple diluent; and
(d) is not placed on the market as a plant protection product.
An active substance that meets the criteria of “foodstuff*” as defined in article 2 of the EC Regulation n°178/2002 is considered as a Basic Substance.
* Food” means any substance or product, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, intended to be, or reasonably expected to be, ingested by humans.
Source: Article 23 of EC Regulation 1107/2009
A substance or preparation which, when applied to all or part of a plant, acts on physiological mechanisms, particularly cell differentiation or elongation, without harming the plant from an agronomic point of view. This action is usually accompanied by a change in the morphology and structure of the plant.
Notes: The term substance is to be preferred to the term regulator, which is a misnomer because it evokes a regulatory action.
Source: index acta 2021
Commercial
Terms used in mainly commercial communication materials
Term associated with biostimulants in rather technical-commercial documents. Soil activators are products (substances or micro-organisms) intended to enrich and/or modify the structure or composition of the soil. They claim to stimulate the biological activity of the soil to promote plant health.
Source: Faessel L., Gomy C., Nassr N., Tostivint C., Hipper C., Dechanteloup A., 2014, Produits de stimulation en agriculture visant à améliorer les fonctionnalités biologiques des sols et des plantes. Study of available knowledge and strategic recommendations, study report to the Ministry of Agriculture, Agri-Food and Forestry, Bio by Deloitte and RITTMO Agroenvironnement, 148 p.
www.perspectives-agricoles.com/file/galleryelement/pj/6c/83/fc/f7/432_3137393317361665007.pdf
A phytostimulant is a substance or organism capable of stimulating the biological functions (growth, defence, etc.) of a plant directly. It has no regulatory framework and can correspond to SDP or Biostimulants type products.
Natural defence stimulator = see definition SDP
The RMT Elicitra has defined the term SDP and recommends that it be used in preference to SDN to avoid the ambiguity associated with the word “natural” which can refer to defences or stimulation.
Vitality corresponds to the ability of a plant to ensure its growth, its development and the whole of its biological cycle in a given edapho-climatic environment, whatever the limiting conditions (stress…) or not of this environment. Non-regulatory and obsolete term.
Source: Definition from CEB DT 20 version 2011” EXPÉRIMENTATION DES PRÉPARATIONS NATURELLES STIMULATRICES DE LA VITALITÉ DES PLANTES”
The JTN Bestim
Agricultural developments deal with very high expectations. One of them targets to drastically reduce the use of chemical inputs and in particularly plant protection products. Farmers and professionals in charge of agricultural development must invent an “ecological” agriculture while ensuring profitability and sustainability of alternative systems including combination of various solutions.
The JTN Bestim approved by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food on September 27th, 2020, offers agroecological plant immunity concept (Download the project text in French here).
This concept takes into account all solutions operating on crop immunity and development: plant genetics, microbiota, pest diversity, farming practices including the application of biocontrol and biostimulant products. It’s not just about understanding the effects of all these measures but especially the way they interact to identify and prioritize solutions to propose new cropping systems integrating this knowledge.
Based on the Elicitra’s achievement JTN (2010-2019), the Bestim JTN aspires, during the five years of the approval period (2021-2025). to transfer knowledge acquired in agroecological immunity to the field This transmission should also involve other alternatives already available or being developed to result in redesigned “low input” cropping systems.
The work programme of the Bestim JTN is structured around five workpackages with different deliverables.
Innovation watch
• Solutions
• Methods
Facilitators : Régis Berthelot (Arvalis) ; Marie Turner (Vegenov)
Methodologies
• Lab : markers, protocols
• Field : markers, DSS, protocols
• Link lab-filed
Facilitators: Marie-Noëlle Brisset (UMR IRHS ANGERS) ; Adrien Gauthier (UR AGHYLE ROUEN) ; Marie-Claire Héloir (UMR AGROECOLOGIE DIJON) ; Marie Turner (Vegenov)
Optimization of effects
• - Mode of operation
• - Variation factors
•- Interaction between solutions
Facilitators: Marie-Noëlle Brisset (UMR IRHS ANGERS) ; Marie-Claire Héloir (UMR AGROECOLOGIE DIJON) ; Sophie Trouvelot (UMR AGROECOLOGIE DIJON)
Crop system integration
•Solutions priorities
• System prototyping workshops
• - Demonstrators
Facilitators: Elsa Ballini (UMR PHIM MONTPELLIER) ; Régis Berthelot (Arvalis) ; Sophie Trouvelot (UMR AGROECOLOGIE DIJON)
Training/Communication
• Academic
• Professionnals
• Internal/External
Facilitators: Elsa Ballini (UMR PHIM MONTPELLIER) ; Régis Berthelot (Arvalis) ; Adrien Gauthier (UR AGHYLE ROUEN) ; Marie Turner (Vegenov)
The Bestim JTN is funded by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food and is affiliated with ACTA.
Facilitators and members:
The Bestim JTN affiliated with ACTA, brings together more than fifty organizations willing to engage collectively around the concept of agroecological immunity.
The Bestim JTN partners cover all crop production sectors.
The network is led by ARVALIS–Plant institute which is supported for facilitation by Vegenov, INRAE, l’institut Polytechnique UniLaSalle, l’Université de Bourgogne et l’Institut Agro-Sup Agro. etl’Institut Agro – Sup Agro.
