COMBINE - ANR - 2022 - 2026

Combining varieties to compel the adaptation of plant pathogen populations: How to solve the efficiency - sustainability - adoption trade-off ?

 

COMBINE ANR

The COMBINE project aims to define new strategies for the deployment of resistance combinations in order to find the best compromise between efficiency, durability and technical- and cost-effectiveness. We propose a global multidisciplinary approach combining biology (epidemiology and evolutionary biology), modeling and socio-economics. Several pathosystems with different biological features, causing diseases on different crops (wheat, grapevine, pepper, banana, rice) are studied via three complementary tasks.

i- We will study the impact on the dynamics and evolution of pathogen populations of the combination of resistances in varietal mixtures, using experimental or existing on-farm situations, in order to understand whether antagonistic interactions are at play and their impact on the evolution of pathogen populations.

ii- We will analyze the socio-economic constraints and levers that impacts the farmers' strategies for diversification.

iii- A generic model based on the existence of antagonistic interactions will be improved and parameterized for a diversity of pathogens, in order to simulate a wide range of strategies on several pathosystems, and to derive optimal deployment strategies of plant resistances at different spatial scales.

COMBINE will provide new insights and generic tools for the sustainable use of genetic resistance in a pesticide-free agriculture.

  • Partners : unité PHIM (centre INRAE Occitanie-Montpellier) ; unités BIOSP, GAFL, Pathologie végétale (centre INRAE Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Avignon) ; unités BIOGER, ECOSYS, GQE, SADAPT (centre INRAE Ile-de-France-Versailles-Saclay) ; unité GAEL (centre INRAE-Lyon-Grenoble-Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) ; unité SAVE (centre INRAE Nouvelle-Aquitaine-Bordeaux).
  • coordinator of project : Elisabeth Fournier (unité PHIM)
  • Responsible-project for GAFL Unit : Véronique Lefebvre