ILVO’s Agrifood Research Landscape (IARL)
- Lead: Flanders research institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food - ILVO
Country
Belgium
Agricultural Area
240 ha
About ERS
- Lead: Flanders research institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food - ILVO
- Contact: Jonas Vandicke
- Production System: Livestock production (poultry, pig, dairy cattle), arable production, organic and conventional
Thematic Areas Covered
Additives for Reducing Enteric Methane Emissions
Crops Management
Forage Production
Grassland Management
Herd Management
Manure Storage and Spreading
Rewarding Mechanisms
Soil Health and Biodiversity
Water Management
Description
South of Ghent, ILVO’s Agrifood Research Landscape (IARL) stretches across 240 hectares of fields and research infrastructure where plant, soil, climate, and livestock research come together. The site hosts long-term crop trials, regenerative and precision farming experiments, soil and biodiversity monitoring, and climate-neutral facilities for dairy, pigs, and poultry.
New infrastructures such as the Poultry Innovation Centre and the Feed Pilot allow us to improve our research on future feed concepts, valorising side streams, and measuring emissions. ILVO’s Centre of Expertise for Agriculture and Climate (ELK) guides and aligns this work, ensuring that all climate research moves coherently toward shared goals.
Characteristics
ILVO’s agrifood research landscape (IARL) is ILVO’s open-air laboratory: a landscape where productive agriculture, biodiversity, water, and climate concerns are deliberately interwoven.
Guided by the UN SDGs and ILVO’s “5G” principles, the site evolves as a climate-neutral agricultural park with room for experimentation and co-creation in both conventional and organic farming. Flower-rich field borders, hedges, ponds, accessible paths and heritage elements frame cutting-edge research on crops, livestock, feed innovation, circularity, and resilient land use. It is a place that showcases how scientific ambition and landscape quality can reinforce each other—and point toward the agriculture of tomorrow.
