ASTREDHOR is the Institute of plant professionals and helps companies to undertake the challenges of the plant industry. The Institute conducts research projects that meet the needs of professionals and public policies. ASTREDHOR designs and implements research programs and R&D to improve the technical, economic and environmental performance of horticultural, florist and floricultural and landscaping companies. Based on the results of these projects, the Institute supports professionals to convert their practices through conferences, documents, advices, trainings and services.
ASTREDHOR's missions
Conduct research activities for professionals
- Provide scientific and technical intelligence in horticultural sector
- Co-construct new knowledges
- Build new solutions for and with the professionals
- Assess risks and benefits of new systems and products and to provide references for the professionals
Provide support and expertise for companies and public authorities
- Collect and analyse the research needs of economic and politic actors
- Provide strong technical and economic expertise to companies and public authorities
- Promote and disseminate results, methods and tools, in particular by setting up demonstrators
- Get involved in initial and ongoing formation and civil society dialogue
ASTREDHOR's expertise
Professionals and institutions can rely on the expertise of ASTREDHOR in numerous subjects such as:
Biodiversity and ecosystem services
The consideration of biodiversity is really important for ASTREDHOR. Research on maintaining biodiversity and especially beneficials in crops is really useful in order to have an efficient integrated pest management. Projects such as HAB’ALIM (positive actions of the agroecological transition for the auxiliary fauna of protected and outdoors crops) or CONCEPT (Microorganisms of interest against telluric diseases) are good examples of this expertise.
Bioeconomy
Urban agriculture projects appear to be one of the solutions for integrating a circular economy in an urban environment. They make city dwellers aware of local consumption, of recycling bio-waste and water or of the rehabilitation of buildings. For instance, ASTREDHOR has started in 2017 the INTERREG NWE project GROOF (Greenhouse to Reduce CO2 on RooFs) with partners from Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Germany to better understand the synergies between architecture and the greenhouse, via the recovery of CO2, water and energy which are three strategic topics for the resilience of the cities of the future. Connections between agricultural sectors is also another way to contribute to the bioeconomy. For exemple, ReNu2Farm CAP Interreg Capitalisation or UTOPPI project study the possibility of using the liquid and solid fractions of methanizers as fertilizer and substrate for horticulture.
New markets
In recent years, companies started to work on aromatic and flowers species adapted to alternative markets such as gastronomy or agroindustry. These flowers not only have a decorative value, they also have nutritional characteristics that must be defined and valued. On this purpose, ASTREDHOR was involved in an INTERREG Maritimo project ANTEA to organize the emerging edible flower sector through the application of technological innovations to enhance aspects related to production, quality, safety of use, transport, conservation, logistics, contacts and marketing.
Clean environment and zero pollution
ASTREDHOR tests and creates new ways to produce and sustain plants with less impact on the environment. Horticultural products need to respond to the societal demand (to have an eco-responsible product and “zero phyto”) and to ensure the acceptability of these new products by consumers. Projects such as PLANTAR aims to develop technical cropping systems and technical and economic references to supply eco-responsible products (biodegradable/biocompostable containers, peat-free substrate, organic fertilization...) adapted to market demands. For more than 20 years, ASTREDHOR has worked on reducing the use of peat in substrates to meet environmental and economic issues that are imposed in the sector.
Climate actions
Environmental protection and the fight against climate change are major challenges for ASTREDHOR. In order to qualify the impact of a product or a process on the environment, ASTREDHOR developed (with the Agrithermic design office and the CFPPA, education center of La Tour du Pin) the first tool to quantify the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the horticultural industry. This tool allowed to understand the GHG origin and to propose alternatives to reduce the GHG emissions by 15 to 50%
