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• 5 years programme (2012-2016)
• Coordinator : (Total : 514 k€). For IGEPP, Lydia Bousset
• Contact: lydia.bousset-vaslin@inrae.fr

Reducing the use of pesticides by better managing resistant varieties

The objective of the project is to develop strategies for the sustainable use of disease-resistant varieties on a territory-wide scale. This requires the involvement of agronomic approaches and approaches in the social sciences.

Produce effective and acceptable varieties management practices

The objective of the Gester project is to produce scenarios for the allocation of resistant varieties at the scale of cultivated landscapes. As it is currently used, the resistance of varieties is not very durable in the face of the rapid evolution of pathogens. It is shown, for example, that the use over a large part of the territory of a single variety can lead to the development of a particularly aggressive parasite population. By associating an epidemiological approach, which consists of analyzing the parasite populations and modeling their development on a varietal landscape, and a social science approach, which consists in analyzing the organizational constraints of the actors but also their perception of the stakes of plant protection, Project aims to produce modalities for the management of resistant varieties that are acceptable to the sectors and performing well on both the biological and organizational levels.

Epidemic and organizational models for the management of varieties

The Gester project is structured as follows: the approach is based on the acquisition of knowledge and on the development of models that will be carried out in parallel in the two major disciplinary fields concerned, epidemiology and social sciences. In a second phase, the models will be used to produce "candidate" scenarios for the management of resistant varieties. In the third phase, these scenarios will be evaluated jointly by the partners to produce management modalities of the resistant varieties acceptable to the sectors and performing both biologically and organizationally. The main technical challenges are the development of epidemic models at the scale of the landscape and the development of multi-criteria models for the evaluation of organizational performance.

Results

The project has achieved good disciplinary integration. The partners produced several epidemiological models to simulate the development of a disease at the scale of a cultivated landscape. These patterns indicate that the way in which varieties are distributed across the territory (grouped or mixed) has an effect on the strength of epidemics and the evolution of parasites. Gester has already given birth to other collaborative projects (FONDU project, funded by INRAE, submission of a project to the FRB).

Perspectives

This project has been identified as an example of collaboration between agronomic and social sciences disciplines on a topical issue (see for example http://agriculture.gouv.fr/ecophyto-projet-gester).

http://www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr/?Project=ANR-11-AGRO-0003