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.
Ten test sites will operate over a two-year period on farms spread over ten Québec regions to compare the performance of winter and spring cereals.
Researchers: Marc-Olivier Gasser Caroline Côté Luc Belzile
This project seeks to reduce the use of chemical insecticides in orchards by controlling apple maggot populations using mass trapping.
Researcher: Daniel Cormier
Development of a growing out-of-soil organic raspberries in high tunnels protocol in a profitable and competitive manner with a view to selling products locally or to large retail chains.
Researcher: Annabelle Firlej
In this project, initiated by Agrinova, IRDA will analyze the profitability of techniques used to repel pasture flies in organic dairy production.
Researcher: Luc Belzile
This project seeks to develop a knowledge transfer tool to assist organic market gardeners with weed control.
Researcher: Maryse Leblanc
Project initiated to review the knowledge on the fungicide resistance of various pathogens to provide a preliminary assessment of the economic impacts of fungicide resistance.
Researcher: Luc Belzile
The model’s predictions will be used to calibrate the dose of a thinning agent (ANA) to be applied in two plots, one treated with carbaryl and the other without, over a two-year period.
Researcher: Vincent Philion
This project aims to develop mass trapping strategies to keep damage caused by the striped cucumber beetle populations below the economic threshold, while minimizing the capture of pollinators and natural enemies.
Researchers: Annabelle Firlej Maxime Lefebvre
This project’s aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of HARVANTA® 50SL to control the cranberry weevil, the blackheaded fireworm and the cranberry fruitworm.
Researcher: Annabelle Firlej
Collaboration for a cost-effectiveness analysis to identify the most promising practices and strategies to reduce the use of pesticide.
Researcher: Luc Belzile
This project assesse the influence of biotic and abiotic factors on the efficacy of spring flooding to developp a strategy of control for the blackheaded fireworm
Researcher: Daniel Cormier
This update will incorporate information from more recent scientific articles on Spotted Wing Drosophila
Researcher: Annabelle Firlej
Exclusion nets have proven to be effective against nearly all of these insect pests, which means that it’s possible to develop apple growing practices in Québec that are not only neonicotinoid free, but also devoid of all pesticides (including acaricides, given that mite problems are a consequence of broad-spectrum insecticide use). Although the net exclusion microsystem studied in Québec since 2012 has demonstrated its effectiveness in controlling insect pests, some issues remain to be studied before it can be unreservedly recommended. Among these are the handling times for the nets, i.e., installation/removal and opening/closing, and the system’s profitability and durability over the long haul for various cultivars.
Researcher: Mikaël Larose
Developing a fast and sensitive molecular detection methodology able to accurately identify raspberry and strawberry viruses.
Researchers: Richard Hogue Luc Belzile
Development of a mating disruption method to control two cranberry pests.
Researcher: Daniel Cormier
and quality of soil, water, and air
of local communities by improving the quality of crop and livestock production, with an emphasis on animal welfare
of crop and livestock production