COSAQ

With more than 1,000 establishments, the agri-food sector represents a third of the workforce in local industry. Its most successful sectors are: beverages and alcohol, sugar, meat and milk. More than 50% of the food consumed in Réunion is produced locally. Their quality therefore represents essential economic development and public health issues for Reunion Island. The quality of the product perceived by the consumer is however the result of a complex process which begins with the producer and continues during storage and/or processing, until marketing. To understand it correctly, it is necessary to adopt an integrated approach, which considers and analyzes quality as a continuum from the farm to the consumer's plate.

Goals

The aim of the Co-construction of quality agri-food system (Cosaq) system is to build technical itineraries, from producer to consumer, guaranteeing the traceability and quality of products in their health, sensory and nutritional aspects. Quality is studied at the level of the products but also of the production methods, from a biological point of view (construction of quality), technical (cultivation and agro-processing practices) and economic (enhancement of the quality of the products, design of organizational systems, etc.).

The work focuses on tropical fruits and vegetables (mango, pineapple, citrus, banana, cucurbits, nightshades, legumes, 'lontan vegetables', lettuce, onion, etc.), high value-added productions (coffee, cocoa, vanilla) and niche productions (honey, conflora).
- Action 1. Identify and model the determinants of the yield and quality of agricultural and food products
- Action 2. Develop farming techniques and processes for processing and/or preserving agricultural and food products -
- Action 3. Characterize in a non-destructive way the quality of agricultural and food products

To date, this project has already enabled:
- The production of 3D models of fruit trees in order to simulate and study the interception of light by the leaves, the different aspects of operation and the photosynthesis involved in the development of the yield and the quality of the fruits
- The establishment of an organic Victoria pineapple production in Reunion
- Ecovergers where cultural practices to manage pests have been implemented as an alternative to pesticides

Expected results

Expected changes

- Modeling of mango yield and quality
- Understanding the interactions between yield, quality and bioaggressors for fruit crops
- The elaboration of the quality of the tailed pepper
- Biocontrol to control pests
- Management of orchards in integrated cultivation
- A selection of pineapple growing systems
- The development of alternative post-harvest treatments (essential oils, CO2 shocks, hypoxia) for the protection of mangoes and pineapples against the development of bio-aggressors in storage
- Databases on the products studied (pineapple, mango, cocoa, coffee, honey, pepper, sugar cane, etc.)
- Methods for the analysis of spectroscopic data
- Models of territorial organization of resilient production systems based on the tools developed
- New ways of adding value to fruits from integrated fruit production
- Tools and methods for dynamic support of actors

Expected impacts

- Competitive agriculture in a dynamic of agroecology, with improved yields, quality products with a significant reduction in the environmental and health impacts of fruit production
- The development of quality products with very high added value (cocoa, coffee, honey, tailed pepper)
- Efficient levers that can be mobilized in zero pesticide systems make it possible to fight against bioaggressors (pests, diseases, weeds)