Cooperation projects

Here you'll find our emblematic regional projects covering all the key issues facing the southwest Indian Ocean!

  • INDICANTS : INnovative DIagnostiCs for bANana paThogens Surveillance

    Fusarium wilt © Isabelle Robène Cirad
    Banana cultivation, the world's most important fruit crop in terms of production volume, is faced with a number of pests and diseases responsible for major crop losses and declining production, seriously compromising food security and the livelihoods of banana-dependent farming households.

    The "INDICANTS" research project, led by Cirad and the University of Stellenbosh (South Africa), is developing innovative molecular tools for the rapid field diagnosis of four vascular banana diseases that are present in many production areas.

  • What are the conditions for a sustainable transition of Rodrigues' agriculture to organic farming by 2030?

    St Francois moutons sur pature dégradée © Cirad
    Rodrigues regional assembly has an ambitious goal: to transform the island's agricultural sector into organic farming by 2030. The aim of this transition is to create a more secure, environmentally-friendly agriculture that offers greater support to farmers. Water, a precious and scarce natural resource, is a key issue.

  • Improving the competitiveness of the Comoros' high-value-added export agricultural and vegetable value chains

    Champ de chous Grande Comore © Philippe Ryckewaert Cirad
    Within the AFIDEV project, CIRAD is working with Expertise France and our long-standing scientific and technical partner, the Institut national de recherche en agriculture, pêche et environnement (INRAPE), to help them improve the competitiveness and organisation of high value-added, export-oriented agricultural sectors (such as vanilla, ylang-ylang and cloves) and the market gardening sector in the Comoros.

  • Boosting a regional healthy and adapted seed and planting material supply chain in the south-west Indian Ocean: the Food-Sec Semence project

    SANOI - Food-Sec Semence
    The main objective of the Food-Sec Semence project is the development of a regional seed and planting material supply chain adapted to the agroecological conditions of the southwest Indian Ocean.
    To do this, this project aims to describe the local agro-economic contexts, the needs and expectations of farmers, developping catalogs of elite varieties, producing improved starting materials and evaluating them in field, providing recommendations that will serve as a basis for the elaboration of action plans at national and regional levels...

  • APTAE-OI : Adoption of Practices for the Agro-Ecological Transition in the South-West Indian Ocean

    SANOI - APTAE-OI
    As part of the regional programme to support food and nutritional security funded by the European Union, in partnership with the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), the main purpose of the APTAE-OI project is to promote and disseminate a corpus of agro-ecological practices for a successful transition in the south-west Indian Ocean.

    In this way, the project is contributing to the food, nutritional and health security of the populations of the south-west Indian Ocean through the production of healthier, high-quality agro-ecological products that capitalise on the diversity of local agri-food genetic resources, which are sometimes neglected.

  • Living' Forest: territorial "Living Labs" to strengthen the synergies between conservation and valorization issues of forest biodiversity

    VARUNA - Living'Forest
    In the framework of the regional VARUNA program "a regional ambition for biodiversity" financed by AFD and implemented and coordinated by Expertise France, CIRAD (UMR SENS) is coordinating the regional Living'Forest project, which aims to strengthen the synergies between conservation and development issues for forest biodiversity. The Living'Forest project thus provides a very specific contribution from research to the interactive production of knowledge about biodiversity for and with society.

  • School feeding program based on purchases of local products: analysis and recommendations

    Préparation Repas Andina district Ambositra © Hélène David-Benz Cirad
    In 2021, the World Food Program (WFP) and the Malagasy Ministry of National Education implemented a school feeding program based on purchases of local products, in collaboration with several ministries and several national agencies. A first study was commissioned jointly by Cirad and IRD in order to document the effectiveness of this program in the Amoron'i Mania (central Madagascar) and Atsimo-Andrefana (southwest) regions and draw lessons for a greater impact on the local populations (parents and school children) concerned.

  • Invasive exotic species: how to control them in the southwest Indian Ocean?

    Vigne Maronne - Acacia mearnsii © Marion Dailloux, Cirad
    The southwestern Indian Ocean is known for its rich biodiversity. With 12,000 endemic species, this region represents a hot-spot of global biodiversity. Among the risks that threaten this natural biodiversity, invasive exotic species (IAS) are identified as one of the main factors of biodiversity erosion in these different territories...

    For a decade, the mobilization on this subject in the region is high, the challenges are immense. To today, the dynamics of expansion of invasive alien species, their current and potential impact on biodiversity as well as the ways to prevent and control them remain partially known and managed. This is where the challenge lies!

  • PhD

    PRéRAD-OI presents here the work of theses led by the thematic networks and actors that it supports on different topics of interest.