Description

Cavalbio contributes to the development of sustainable yams and citrus sectors, by creating innovative plant material adapted to regional issues. In particular, it targets anthrachnosis (fungal disease) resistance of yams and a lower sensitivity of citrus to Huanglonbing (devastating bacterial disease). Adaptation to production systems that require fewer inputs, product quality, and staggered production in response to local market expectations are also taken into account. Breeding strategies rely on the mobilization of biodiversity. The optimization of these strategies in specific biological contexts (vegetative propagation, interspecificity, polyploidy ...) is based on the characterization of genetic resources, the development of new biological and molecular resources, the acquisition of knowledge on sexual recombination for genitors with complex genomes (interspecificity, frequent polyploidy) as well as the physiological, biochemical, and molecular determinants of the variability of useful traits. The impact of ploidy on the elaboration of these characters is analyzed. The evaluation of needs in terms of quality seedlings and the preferences of farmers for different varietal characteristics as well as the modeling evaluation of the potential economic benefits at the territory level will favor the economic valuation of innovations. Thanks to innovative plant material, a better knowledge of its agronomical behavior and of the modalities of innovation acceptability by the actors of the sectors, the project will favor the emergence of a sustainable agriculture with lower inputs answering the geo-climatic constraints and the needs of the consumer. Cavalbio brings together the skills of CIRAD, INRA and the Antilles University, in close collaboration with the actors of the sector. It is upstream of participatory selection actions allowing rapid transfer of innovations to farmers via the RITAs.