Research Projects
Each year, IRDA's R&D Team conducts more than one hundred research projects in sustainable agriculture. What's more, IRDA is working with Quebec's key agricultural stakeholders to find concrete solutions.
Large-scale use of codling moth mating disruption in Quebec orchards
The aim of our project was to increase the acreage on which mating disruption is used against the codling moth in all of Québec’s apple-growing regions.
Researcher: Daniel Cormier
Posters on integrated fruit production for strawberry, raspberry, and highbush blueberry crops
IRDA produced posters to help producers and extension agents choose pest and disease control strategies that promote the use of IPM.
Researcher: Annabelle Firlej
A study on the link between spotted wing drosophila populations, crop damage, and yield losses
This project helped to determine if there is a significant correlation between the number of adult spotted wing drosophila captured and yield losses observed in the field.
Researcher: Annabelle Firlej
Selecting low-risk insecticides to control cranberry weevil on cranberry farms
The aim of this two-year project was to determine the efficacy of various pesticides in the field.
Researcher: Annabelle Firlej
Detecting spores of Pucciniastrum geopertianum, the fungus that causes blueberry witches’ broom rust
The aim of the project was to determine whether the witches’ broom symptom on blueberries is really caused by the rust Pucciniastrum geopertianum, which attacks balsam.
Researcher: Richard Hogue
Exclusion nets for organic apple production in Eastern Canada
The aim of this project was to test the general hypothesis that exclusion nets, when properly used, can prevent attacks by most apple pests and reduce disease incidence with no major adverse effects on fruit quality.
Researcher: Gérald Chouinard
Control strategies to reduce the impact of the spotted wing drosophila
This project aims to promote a biocontrol solution by testing a complex of natural enemies that attack the spotted wing drosophilia at different development stages.
Researcher: Annabelle Firlej
Attract and kill strategies for control of the plum curculio in conventional and organic apple orchards
An attract and kill technique to control plum curculio was recently proposed by U.S. researchers, but it is very little used in orchards and virtually unknown in Québec.
Researcher: Gérald Chouinard
Selection, mass rearing, and field efficiency of a predaceous strain of mullein bug
The goal of the project is to select a strain of the mullein bug to control two spotted and red spider mites when populations tend to explode.
Researcher: Daniel Cormier
Adapting fruit crop pest and disease control to climate change
The goal of this project was to document the impact of climate change on fruit crop pests and diseases in Québec.
Researcher: Annabelle Firlej
Productivity of healthy looking plants that have never received nitrogen fertilizer and that are located in a blueberry field infected by stunt disease
In highbush blueberry fields where stunt disease has been detected, plants that have never received nitrogen fertilizer are more vigorous and homogeneous than plants that have received nitrogen fertilizer.
Researchers: Carl Boivin Christine Landry
Repellent properties of exclusion nets used for the control of leafroller and stink bug pests of apples
The aim of the project was to measure the effect of certain natural repellents that can be used on different types of exclusion nets.
Researcher: Gérald Chouinard
Development of a cropping system for organic raspberries in high tunnels
Evaluate the toxicity of biological pesticides or repellents to control the spotted wing drosophila on everbearing raspberries grown in tunnels.
Researcher: Daniel Cormier
Distribution of the infection period required by individual ascospores of Venturia inaequalis
Improving the RIMpro software to better predict the risk of infection during rainfall.
Researcher: Vincent Philion
Sterile insect release as a biological control method for the spotted wing drosophila: sterilization protocol, competitiveness of irradiated males, and releases in semi-natural conditions
The project consisted of sterilizing spotted wing drosophilas in the laboratory and mass releasing it in crops as a biocontrol method.
Researcher: Annabelle Firlej
The solutions developed by IRDA aim to...
Ensure the sustainability
and quality of soil, water, and air
Protect the health and well-being
of local communities by improving the quality of crop and livestock production, with an emphasis on animal welfare
Safeguard the economic viability
of crop and livestock production