Site-specific management provides the ability to align the production intensity to demand and thus adjust the expenses to the necessary level. So it is possible to increase the proportion of marketable commodity in the normal sort–size of 40 mm to 60 mm. Planting distances adapted to the soil properties seem to achieve this objective. It is possible to further optimize the proportion of marketable commodity especially in the potato regions where irrigation and fertilization already contribute to a consistently high yield. Different planting distances on the soil sites by EM38 were tested in field trials. Planting distances of 31.50 cm in the row on the light (sandy) soil, 24.50 cm on middle and 27.50 cm on the heavy soil sites seems the best for these three years. There is a yield impact in total, as well as in the proportion of marketable commodity. Depending on the planting strategy, increases in income up to €153 per hectare can be obtained.

The main objective of this work was to evaluate technologies that have potential for monitoring aspects related to spatial and temporal variability of soil nutrients and pasture yield and for support to decision making by the farmers. Three types of sensors were evaluated: an electromagnetic induction sensor, an active optical sensor and a capacitance probe. The results are relevant for the selection of the adequate sensing system for each particular application and to open new perspectives for other works that would allow the testing, calibration and validation of the sensors in a wider range of pasture production conditions and rainfall patterns, characteristic of the Mediterranean region.

In order to exploit potentials of 20–40% reduction of herbicide use, as documented by use of Decision Support Systems (DSS), where requirements for manual field inspection constitute a major obstacle, large numbers of digital pictures of weed infestations have been collected and analysed manually by crop advisors. Results were transferred to: 1) DSS, which determined needs for control and connected, optimized options for control returned options for control and 2) convolutional, neural networks, which in this way were trained to enable automatic analysis of future pictures, which support both field- and site-specific integrated weed management.

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient in agriculture. Its reactive forms are the focus of concerns because they are responsible for a multitude of impacts on the environment and health. This was highlighted by the 2011 European Nitrogen Assessment, which drew up a critical inquiry on nitrogen imbalances due to livestock farming systems. The ambivalent status of nitrogen, both a resource for agriculture and a pollutant for environment, requires legal systems to find the equilibrium between the fertilising potential of the animal wastes and its possible negative effects on the environment. The European policies on nitrate and gaseous pollutants are the subject of much litigation with the European Commission. In this context, the French government asked for a synthesis of scientific knowledge on flows and fate of nitrogen related to livestock farms. Articles following in this review draw (i) the current situation, (ii) explain social and economic causes of the territorial variability of nitrogen pressure, (iii) quantify the flow on farms, (iv) look at indicators, (v) regulation instruments and finally (vi) identify options for reducing nitrogen pressure caused by livestock farming. In terms of materials and methods, a particular importance was given to peer recognition, and plurality inside the panel of experts and in the literature selection.