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.
The Apple Phytosanitary Warning Network.
Researchers: Gérald Chouinard Vincent Philion Daniel Cormier
Codling moth sexual confusion.
Researcher: Daniel Cormier
Evaluation of the effectiveness of various predator combinations in controlling spotted wing drosophilia.
Researcher: Annabelle Firlej
Developing a new scab control strategy based on selecting the lowest-risk products that best fit the circumstances at hand, and tailoring the doses accordingly.
Researcher: Vincent Philion
Optimizing spraying through exclusion nets.
Researchers: Gérald Chouinard Daniel Cormier Vincent Philion
Developing and assessing the planting of flower strips in orchard inter-rows as an alternative to the application of insecticides.
Researchers: Daniel Cormier Gérald Chouinard
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
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’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
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
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