par MONTY, Arnaud (éd.) ; GARRÉ, Sarah ; HAUBRUGE, Eric (éd.)
Intensive agricultural practices have become dominant in Western Europe. Despite the fact that they have contributed to an important increase in food production over recent decades, intensive agriculture is increasingly being questioned, due to a range of major environmental and socio-economic concerns. Agricultural research therefore has a key role to play in facing the challenge of changing agriculture, in order to make it sustainable, eco-friendly, cost-effective and healthy. Such a challenge certainly requires innovative and multi-disciplinary approaches. But in which direction should research be pushed forward? Launched in 2013 to face this challenge, AgricultureIsLife is a multi- disciplinary research platform of Gembloux AgroBioTech (University of Liège). The present special issue of Biotechnology, Agronomy, Society and Environment is a compilation of 11 articles written by the researchers involved in this platform. The articles review potential directions for innovation in agriculture, structured within five main topics: the development of agroecology; the evolution of soil and organic residue management; the development of tools for smart farming; the replacement of synthetic chemical inputs by bio-based compounds; and the use of new bio-based resources for human consumption.