Biocontrol and plant epidemiosurveillance in the Indian Ocean - BIOCONTRÔLE-OI

The Indian Ocean (IO) countries are mostly characterized by island environments. They are faced with an urgent need to feed a fast-growing population by developing competitive local agriculture, while conserving their environments, which are rich but fragile, and under threat from global change. In most of those countries, agriculture is still a major part of the economy and provides large numbers of jobs.

dP BIOCONTRÔLE-OI centres on three lines of research on two scales: agro-ecosystems and communities, or organisms. It is looking at biocontrol products such as invertebrate macro-organisms (insects, mites or nematodes) or micro-organisms (fungi, bacteria, viruses), chemical mediators (substances produced by insects that play a role in sexual attraction), and natural substances (of plant, animal or mineral origin).

The three lines of research are:

  • Assessing regional priorities as regards phytosanitary risks (epidemiosurveillance, inventories and diagnostics)
  • Developing biocontrol innovations (multi-trophic interactions for biocontrol, chemical ecology for biotechnical control and push-pull strategies, natural biocides and defence stimulators)
  • Integrating biocontrol innovations into crop management sequences and assessment of their performance.

The challenges shared by the countries in the zone are: sustainably reducing production losses due to pests and diseases while limiting new cross-border introductions and use of chemical inputs.

 

List of partners in each country

Metropolitan France

  • French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD)

Comoros

  • Institut national de recherche pour l'Agriculture, la Pêche et l'Environnement

Réunion

  • University of Réunion
  • French Ministry of Agriculture and Food

Mayotte

  • French Ministry of Agriculture and Food

Madagascar

  • National Centre for Applied Research on Rural Development (FOFIFA)
  • Direction de la protection des végétaux
  • University of Antananarivo

Mauritius

  • Ministry of Agro Industry and Food Security
  • Food and Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (FAREI)

Seychelles

  • Ministry of Agriculture