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Impact of emerging diseases and pests on crops
This topic, brought up for the first time in 2004, covers problems caused by a combination of factors. These factors are linked to changes that are directly or indirectly associated with globalisation: climate change, changes in cultural practices (e.g. precision farming) and the complex evolution of agro-ecosystems that are still not widely understood or controlled. These can all contribute to the emergence or re-emergence of phytosanitary problems due to various organisms, such as insects, fungi, bacteria, viruses and nematodes. Pests and pathogens are expected to move South-North and South-South, resulting in the colonisation of new areas. These are a threat to agriculture in Northern countries and have already constrained crop systems in the South.
Water Management in the Mediterranean
This research topic is the focus of an international team led by a researcher from INRA’s Environment and Agronomy Department, and including researchers from CIHEAM (International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies), ICARDA (International Center For Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas) and Wageningen University.
The research revolves around three key concepts:
The experimental facilities for the research are located at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute (IAM) of Bari. Two-way exchanges have been organised for the management and follow-up of the project, as well as the training of post-graduate and PhD researchers from participating countries. The research project also involves a scientific partnership with ICARDA (discussion and publication of results via the ICARDA network).
Tunisia
On 16th of May 2008, Marion Guillou, President of INRA and Mr Abdelaziz Mougou, President of the Institution of Agricultural Research and Higher Education (IRESA) signed a framework cooperation agreement. The agreement was signed in Tunis at the Ministry of Agriculture in the presence of Mr Mohamed Habib Haddad, Minister of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources and Mr Abderrazak Daâloul, Secretary of State for Fisheries. The CIRAD will soon be associated with this agreement.
This agreement aims at reinforcing scientific exchanges, researcher mobility and joint projects between the two establishments. It establishes a programme of calls for proposals for joint research projects.
Tunisia, represented by IRESA, is part of the ERA-net project on agricultural research in the Mediterranean area coordinated by INRA and which will be soon underway.
Morocco: renewal of partnership agreement
The cooperation involved in all these key areas has led INRA to “update” its international partnership agreements, through a coordinated approach by the organisations involved.
A framework agreement on sustainable development was signed with Morocco in 2004 by CEMAGREF, CIRAD, INRA and IRD, on the one hand, and the Ministries of Higher Education and Research and Agriculture and Fisheries, and specialised organisations under their responsibility, on the other hand. Among the major themes included in the framework agreement, Water and Land and Sustainable Food Systems are of particular interest to INRA.
Italy
An agreement was signed in May 2005 with the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, within the framework of a bilateral research programme on the grapevine. It concerns the French-Italian vine genomics project: Better knowledge of the grapevine.
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