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.

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Results for 2019 Market gardening
2019-2022 • Market gardeningField crops

Including perennial fodder crops as “cut and carry” nitrogen sources in long-term rotations of organically grown potatoes and field crops

We will compare the ability of mixed protocols using blended green manure, with or without the addition of farm manure, to satisfy the nitrogen requirements of a silage corn rotation crop.

Researcher: Christine Landry

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Christine Landry
2019-2021 • Market gardening

A comparative study of organic fertilizers with a high, effective nitrogen to total phosphorus ratio (Neff / Ptot) as a basis for developing productive and sustainable market gardening fertilization strategies

In this study, we will test alfalfa meal pellets in a broccoli crop planted on plastic-covered irrigated mounds and we will compare them with two organic fertilizer, in addition to a control treatment in which no nitrogen is added.

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Christine Landry
Caroline Côté
2019-2023 • Market gardeningField crops

Implementing a three-year sustainable forage crop rotation for potato and field crop farmers

This project seeks to create farmer partnerships in which participants work on implementing a three-year forage crop rotation protocol in potato and field crop fields.

Researcher: Richard Hogue

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Richard Hogue

A status report on the labile carbon to total organic carbon ratio of Saguenay–Lac-St-Jean soils

A labile carbon input would displace some phosphorus into the soil solution, thus making it available again for assimilation into growing plants.

Researcher: Christine Landry

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Christine Landry
2019-2020 • Market gardening

Developing a weed control knowledge transfer tool for organic market gardeners

This project seeks to develop a knowledge transfer tool to assist organic market gardeners with weed control.

Researcher: Maryse Leblanc

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Maryse Leblanc

Île d’Orléans farmers rally to tackle water shortage

This project aims to explore and experiment new approaches and ways to preserve, develop, and enhance the MRC’s bio-food sector, and reduce or eliminate the water deficit on the island.

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Carl Boivin
Stéphane Godbout
2019-2022 • Market gardening

Projet for a Web app to facilitate the viewing and interpretation of potato soil health analyses

This project aims to develop an accessible and user-friendly web application that let stakeholders search the IRDA potato soil database, one of the largest in Canada, to visualize the impact of growing practices and protocols on the biological, physicochemical, and agronomic characteristics of soils cultivated with different cropping systems.

Researcher: Richard Hogue

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Richard Hogue
2019-2022 • Market gardening

Improving potato crop water-use efficiency by developing a deeper understanding of cultivars

The selection of a cultivar should be an essential element in any sound irrigation management strategy. This project aims to optimize water use in potato farming.

Researcher: Carl Boivin

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Carl Boivin
2019-2022 • Market gardening

Improving potato crop water-use efficiency through cropping system modifications

Modifying the cropping system design is an effective way to improve potato crop water-use efficiency and, thereby, lessen the risk of crops experiencing water stress.

Researchers: Carl Boivin Luc Belzile

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Carl Boivin
2019-2022 • Market gardening

Developing mass trapping strategies to control the striped cucumber beetle in organic cucurbit farming

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

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Annabelle Firlej
Maxime Lefebvre
2019-2023 • Market gardening

Developing fertilization strategies for organic garlic farming that combine green and farmyard manure, while taking their N and P supply dynamics and soil quality impacts into account

By enhancing our understanding: 1) of the nitrogen supply dynamics associated with the use of mixed green and farmyard manure applications, and 2) of the timeline of nitrogen uptake by garlic; we hope to fine-tune fertilization strategies so they meet the needs of garlic crops, while minimizing phosphorus accumulation and nitrogen leaching.

Researcher: Christine Landry

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Christine Landry
2019-2023 • Market gardening

Utilizing high-throughput sequencing to identify plant pathogens

Evaluating and developing a high-throughput sequencing-based diagnostic procedure to identify pathogenic organisms.

Researchers: Richard Hogue Luc Belzile

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Richard Hogue
2019-2023 • Market gardeningField crops

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

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Élise Smedbol
2019-2023 • Market gardening

Using cesium-137 to quantify organic horticultural soil erosion

Project to quantify the long-term (60+ years) severity of erosion of organic horticultural soils.

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Claude Bernard
Marc-Olivier Gasser
2019-2022 • Market gardening

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

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Richard Hogue

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

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