Partners

Technical:

  • Association réunionnaise pour la modernisation de l’économie fruitière, légumière et horticole (ARMEFLHOR);
  • Réunion Chamber of Agriculture ;
  • CIRAD ;
  • Forum de l’agriculture raisonnée respectueuse de l’environnement (FARRE);
  • Fédération départementale des groupements de défense contre les organismes nuisibles de la Réunion (FDGDON);
  • Groupement d’agriculture biologique de la Réunion (GAB);
  • Comité des importateurs et distributeurs de produits phytosanitaires et chimiques (CIDPC);
  • Centre national pour l’aménagement des structures des exploitations agricoles - Bureau des structures agricoles (CNASEA-BSA);
  • Institut universitaire de technologie (IUT) - Département génie biologique (Saint-Pierre);
  • Direction de l’agriculture et de la forêt (DAF), Service de la protection des végétaux (SPV);
  • TAKAMAKA Industries (partenaire privé de production de matériel de protection des cultures);
  • VIVEA: agricultural cooperative .

Scientific:

  • USDA-ARS , United States
  • University of Hawaii , United States

Research units

Plant Communities and Biological Invaders in Tropical Environments

Contact

Jean-Philippe Deguine
E-mail

Fighting vegetable fly attacks

28/01/2009 - Article

A project to manage vegetable flies in an agro-ecological way, funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, was launched this month in Réunion. The project, called Gamour, is headed by CIRAD and coordinated by the Réunion Chamber of Agriculture, and is due to run for three years. It involves some fifteen partners working for agricultural development in Réunion.

Vegetable flies are public enemy no. 1 in the agricultural sector. Pesticides are often used incorrectly, ineffective and harmful to the environment and to health. A researcher working for CIRAD in Réunion has come up with an original project, Gamour, with a view to solving the problem without resorting to pesticides. So-called "agro-ecological" methods, based on how natural ecosystems function, are to be applied on the farms involved in the project.
The project, which is funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and is due to run for three years, was launched in January 2009. It is coordinated by the Réunion Chamber of Agriculture, and involves some fifteen partners working for agricultural development.
The Gamour project intends to build knowledge of the bio-ecology of vegetable flies and of agro-ecological crop protection methods (prevention, border plant traps, biological control, etc).
The aim is also to adapt a certain number of technological innovations that have proved themselves in Hawaii to the situation in Réunion and the specifications for organic farming. Those innovations include the approval of commercial specialities, the selection of border plants that will trap flies, the production of specific products, such as beneficials for biological control, etc.
Lastly, there will be a communication component to transfer these agro-ecological techniques to producers, train farmers, and boost awareness of agro-ecological methods among stakeholders. The book Protection des cultures - De l'agrochimie à l'agroécologie , which is just out, discusses these communication tools.
The project fits in well with the objectives of the "Grenelle de l'environnement".

Principle of agro-ecology
To reestablish natural balances within agrosystems by looking at how natural ecosystems function. In other words: to boost animal and plant biodiversity within agricultural plots so as to prevent pest outbreaks and avoid having to use pesticides (except as a last resort).