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.
A new molecular approach to simultaneously detect disease-causing viruses in raspberries and strawberries
Developing a fast and sensitive molecular detection methodology able to accurately identify raspberry and strawberry viruses.
Researchers: Richard Hogue Luc Belzile
A biological strategy to control obliquebanded leafroller in orchards where a codling moth mating disruption program is underway
Biological control of the obliquebanded leafroller in orchards where mating disruption is being used against the codling moth.
Researchers: Daniel Cormier Gérald Chouinard
Developing strategies and methods for weeding carrots grown in rotation with field crops
Development of weeding strategies and methods that will reduce weed pressure on carrot crops, especially row-crop carrots, which appear to be the most problematic.
Researcher: Élise Smedbol
Strategies to mitigate soil degradation in no-till field crops with the goal of reducing herbicide use and boosting soil quality and yields
Three-year project on an array of mitigation protocols to reduce the application of glyphosate in a field crop system (corn–soybean–grains).
Researchers: Richard Hogue Marc-Olivier Gasser
Developing a mechanical weeding strategy for narrow-row organic field and vegetable crops
Experimenting narrow-row crop weed control strategy on three crops: green beans, peas, and soybeans.
Researcher: Élise Smedbol
Attract-and-kill techniques for monitoring and controlling stinkbugs in Québec orchards
Acquiring the knowledge needed to develop an attract-and-kill treatment to control current and future stinkbug populations in Québec apple orchards.
Researchers: Gérald Chouinard Daniel Cormier
Optimization and use of Virosoft CP4 in a Codling moth control program
Developing a Codling moth control management tool based on an improved formulation of Virosoft CP4.
Researchers: Daniel Cormier Gérald Chouinard
Developing a soil microbiome monitoring method to select potato crop management practices that reduce soil-borne pathogens and pesticide applications
Method to monitor and control telluric pathogens affecting potatoes that takes into account the interactions between these pathogens and other soil microbiome organisms.
Researchers: Richard Hogue Luc Belzile
Sustainable control methods for apple pests
This pan-Canadian project conducted in Ontario, Québec, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick focuses on strategies for controlling three key pests in apple production.
Researchers: Daniel Cormier Gérald Chouinard
Environmentally sound management of the Spotted Wing Drosophila
This project will formulate multiple independent, but potentially synergistic, strategies to control Spotted Wing Drosophila.
Researcher: Annabelle Firlej
Biological control of cabbage seedpod weevil in the Prairies – Economic Analysis
The goal of the project is to improve biological methods for controlling the cabbage seedpod weevil in canola crops. In this project, initiated by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and conducted in Québec by UQAM, IRDA is performing an economic analysis of the practices under study.
Researcher: Luc Belzile
Demo plots for low-risk apple IPM programs
The overall objective of the project is to inform apple growers via regional demonstration plots of the latest apple IPM techniques.
Researchers: Vincent Philion Daniel Cormier Mikaël Larose
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