This special issue of the Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies (RAFE) is dedicated to the memory of Jean-Pierre Huiban who passed away prematurely on 16 June 2013 at the age of 58 (he was born on 9 September 1954 in Ivry-sur-Seine, France). This follows the conference organised by INRA in his honour and memory on 27 January 2015. Jean-Pierre Huiban was a well-known and much-appreciated senior research fellow (Directeur de Recherche) at INRA, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, where he had worked since 1985.