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 Soil health
2019-2022 • Field crops

Measuring the impact of winter vs. spring cereals on profitability, soil health, and pesticide use

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

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Marc-Olivier Gasser
Caroline Côté
2019-2021 • Field cropsMarket gardening

OGeMOS Project: Developing and deploying an online tool for managing soil organic matter

This project will develop a versatile tool that will allow to simulate the impacts of agricultural practices on soil organic matter.

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Aubert Michaud, retraité
Marc-Olivier Gasser
Simon Ricard
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
2019-2023 • Fruit production

Modifying an irrigated day-neutral-strawberry growing protocol to improve soil functionality by activating beneficial microorganisms through the addition of labile carbon at planting time

This project will modify current protocols with the addition of labile carbon to preserve or rapidly restore the activity of beneficial microorganisms.

Researcher: Christine Landry

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Christine Landry
2019-2022 • Field crops

Using controlled drainage to optimize water and nutrient uptake by crops

This project relies on the continuous measurement of field water table heights; water exports; as well as sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus runoff into drains at four field-crop production sites.

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Aubert Michaud, retraité
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
2019-2023 • Fruit production

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

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Richard Hogue
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

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).

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Richard Hogue
Marc-Olivier Gasser
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
2019-2021 • Livestock production

Bison farming in Québec: Determining the phosphorous load factor

Project to determine the real value of the phosphorus load associated with bison production in Québec.

Researcher: Stéphane Godbout

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Stéphane Godbout

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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