CACOLAC

Project financing:

Total budget: 214294 euros

PSH budget: 129365 euros

Financier: Office Français de la biodiversité.

Abstract:

Reducing the reliance on chemical pesticides requires a detailed understanding of how alternative pest control methods interact. In perennial cropping systems such as apple orchards, multiple biological, physical, and agroecological control strategies are often applied together, yet their combined effects on pest and beneficial communities remain poorly understood. The CACOLAC project aims to develop a conceptual and operational framework to analyze and optimize combinations of crop protection measures across spatial and temporal scales. The project is structured around three main research axes:

1. The development of a generic population dynamics model integrating the effects of multiple pest and natural enemy control levers and their potential interactions.

2. The statistical modeling and synthesis of existing agronomic and ecological datasets from experimental and commercial apple orchards in the Lower Durance Valley, to quantify the effects of lever combinations on pest assemblages.

3. The co-construction of a typology of control levers and realistic spatio-temporal deployment scenarios, in collaboration with stakeholders from the fruit-growing sector.

The originality of CACOLAC lies in the integration of theoretical modeling, empirical data analysis, and participatory approaches. By combining dynamic and statistical models with scenario-based simulations, the project will help to identify synergies and antagonisms among control methods and to design integrated, agroecological pest management strategies for apple production, potentially extendable to other perennial crops

Project partners:

INRAE ISA, UMR IEES, INRAE BioSP, GRCETA, CETA Cavaillon