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 2018
2018-2023 • Fruit production

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.

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Daniel Cormier
Gérald Chouinard
2018-2022 • Livestock production

Redefining indoor and outdoor spaces and proposing practices that promote dairy cow exercise

The project’s objective is to make available an indoor and outdoor exercise yard design that improves dairy cow and calf well-being while complying with Québec regulations.

Researcher: Stéphane Godbout

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Stéphane Godbout
2018-2019

Converting agri-food waste into biomolecules with agricultural applications: Strategic by-product screening tests

The aim of this work is to bring IRDA’s agri-environmental expertise to bear on the challenges associated with the conversion of agri-food waste into biomolecules with potential agricultural applications.

Researcher: Stéphane Godbout

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Stéphane Godbout
2018-2021 • Fruit production

Developing new shelter systems adapted to organic raspberry production that reduce pest infestations and boost crop productivity and profitability

Design and validation of a new generation of high tunnels with automatic retractable roofs, new roofing materials, and screens that will extend the harvest season.

Researcher: Annabelle Firlej

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Annabelle Firlej
2018-2023 • Fruit production

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

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Annabelle Firlej
2018-2020 • Market gardening

Developing an organic farming protocol for young vegetable shoots: a multidisciplinary approach

This project will help lead to the development of an organic farming system to grow baby greens.

Researchers: Caroline Côté Annabelle Firlej Carl Boivin Maryse Leblanc

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Caroline Côté
Annabelle Firlej
Carl Boivin
Maryse Leblanc
2018-2019 • Fruit production

Incorporating integrated fruit production data for strawberries, raspberries, and highbush blueberries into the SAgE Pesticides web tool

This project looks to incorporate the data for the recommended IFP berry products into the SAgE Pesticides database. The goal is to encourage farmers to adopt IFP and make it easier for them to access IFP data.

Researcher: Annabelle Firlej

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Annabelle Firlej
2018-2019 • Field crops

HebdEau: a pilot project to develop sound irrigation management decision-support tools

This project looks to develop decision-support tools informed by observations of “bellwether” plots and use these tools to disseminate relevant information to irrigators.

Researcher: Carl Boivin

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Carl Boivin
2018-2019 • Market gardening

Evaluating a protocol for growing organic market garden cabbage using split band applications of granulated laying-hen droppings

This project aims to develop a GHD-based fertilizer management system using split band applications for high-N-demand crops grown in rows, e.g., summer cabbage.

Researcher: Christine Landry

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Christine Landry
2018-2020 • Fruit production

Evaluating techniques to interrupt the developmental cycle of spotted wing drosphila overwintering in Québec

The project’s overall goal is to slow the arrival of Spotted Wing Drosophila in crop plots using mass trapping at overwintering sites.

Researcher: Annabelle Firlej

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Annabelle Firlej
2018-2020 • Market gardening

Evaluating the effect of seeds coated with commercial, mycorrhizal fungi inoculum on the yields of nantes carrots grown in mineral soil early in the organic transition process

Test whether or not commercial strains coated on Nantes carrot seeds can compete with native strains in the soil to colonize the host plant and, once symbiosis takes place, whether they succeed in doing a better job than the native strains during the transition to organic farming.

Researcher: Christine Landry

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Christine Landry
2018-2019 • Field cropsLivestock production

Cost-benefit analysis of proposed actions to reduce the phosphorus load entering Missisquoi Bay from the Rivière de la Roche watershed

The Rivière de la Roche sub-watershed has one of the highest phosphorus and sediment export rates of the entire Missisquoi Bay watershed—a particularly challenging situation for the local agricultural sector.

Researchers: Aubert Michaud, retraité Luc Belzile

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Aubert Michaud, retraité
2018-2019 • Field crops

Improving the efficiency of rainwater and irrigation use in the potato cropping system

This project proposes an intervention in a typical potato cropping system to enhance the crop uptake of water and nitrogen.

Researcher: Carl Boivin

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Carl Boivin
2018-2022 • Field crops

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

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2018-2020 • Field crops

A study on synchronizing the supply of n from green manure in order to reduce or replace the use of swine slurry as a fertilizer for post-emergent corn, in the context of the transition to organic farming

This project’s main goal is to demonstrate how to satisfy most of the requirements of a strongly N-dependent crop by improving N-supply synchronization, while protecting the farmers’ prior year revenue-generating window.

Researcher: Christine Landry

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Christine Landry

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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