SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE, RESEARCH
AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
Post doctorate on anthracnose and a doctorate on stern end rot
Commitment
Since 2015
Partner
Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny
Target country
Côte d'Ivoire
Project description
€25,048
Context
In late 2015, the Louis Omer-Decugis Foundation and the Biosciences Department of Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny signed a sectoral cooperation agreement for a thesis programme in the field of sustainable agriculture, working in particular to support small producers and local populations. An initial thesis was thus undertaken on the theme of fungal diseases in mangoes in the Sahel region with the long-term aim of providing knowledge on the problems of managing bio-aggressors faced by small producers and thus working towards their development.
In 2019, the Louis Omer-Decugis Foundation renewed its commitment to the Centre d’Excellence of Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny (CEA-CCBAD-UFHB) and signed a new cooperation agreement for the development of two projects in the field of mango-related agricultural research: a post-doctorate on anthracnose and a new doctorate on stern end rot. The post-doc is a continuation of the thesis project supported since 2015.
In 2021, after several postponements due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Dio Dembélé was able to defend his thesis, while Yéo Souleymane continued his research work with samples taken directly from mango orchards. Having obtained a grant from ICIPE, an international research centre based in Kenya, Yéo Souleymane will soon have to carry out an international internship in one of the four countries funding the grant (United Kingdom, South Africa, Switzerland or Israel) with the task of identifying strains by molecular biology. As a result, he will not travel to France during 2022 as initially planned and his internship in the analytical laboratory of the Omer-Decugis & Cie Group is postponed to a later date.
Dio Dembélé, who is now in the post-doctoral phase, has several tasks to carry out: training in the bio-tech analysis equipment recently acquired by the UFHB, training in the piloting of drones, and continuation of his research on anthracnose, in particular by participating in the work of a specialist laboratory in Europe, which will require additional sampling of strains in northern Côte d’Ivoire.
2. TRAINING FOR YEO SOULEYMANE
During the academic year 2020-2021, Yéo Souleymane received training that was particularly useful for his field of research (statistical software R, GIS (QGIS), remote sensing, etc.) and for the preparation of his thesis, which is due to be defended in September 2023, as his defence was postponed by one year due to the closure of the UFHB for a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Having completed the exploratory phase, an essential prerequisite for his research work, Yéo began a field phase of sampling the vegetative parts of mango trees in the first few months of 2021, in 5 orchards in each production zone, which was then completed by a second phase of sampling during the harvest period. “The progress of his work as well as his current results are very promising,” said Jean-Yves Rey.
Photo gallery
Our Western Africa mangoes
Western africa mangoes
The Group has close links with West Africa, particularly for its mangoes which comes from the four target countries: Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Senegal.
The production and export business for West African mangoes was created by SIIM over 30 years ago in Côte d’Ivoire and then extended to Mali, Burkina Faso and Senegal. This pan-African industry is professionalised and highly invested in sustainable and balanced development for all.
As the beneficiary of geographical conditions that are particularly well suited to mango cultivation (the mango tree is one of the most widespread fruit trees in West Africa, where it appeared during the 19th century), the sector meets the most socially and environmentally rigorous and compliance production standards.
In West Africa, the mango is a flagship product; according to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) “the sector in Côte d’Ivoire supports a rural community of 100,000 people”.
