Entitled:

CIRAD has been working for several years on improving the sustainability of mango production, in particular by trying to understand how the production of these fruits takes place at the scale of the tree, and how this production is affected by environmental factors and cultural practices.

For its part, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries of Queensland (DAF) has a long experience in research on improving the cultivation of mango. Since 2013, they apply to evaluate the interest of orchards, at high or very high, planting density in order to increase their productivity. This objective poses problems in tree management and involves controlling their size in order to plant more per hectare, while maintaining their production potential.

Born from a collaboration in 2014, the FCR Mango project aims to pursue a shared-interest cooperation between CIRAD Réunion and the DAF in Australia regarding the intensive management of mango orchards. This is a major scientific opportunity since it contributes to pooling a unique experimental device in Australia and the data acquired as well as methodologies developed in Reunion Island to analyze in depth the same data.

Objectives:

This project has several objectives:

• Analyze the agronomic and economic data of the experiment conducted in Australia;
• Understand the role of the factors studied (varieties, planting density, mode of management) on the development of tree and orchard yields;
• Identify the advantages and disadvantages of intensive management of the mango orchard; and
• Return the results of this work to mango producers in both countries.

The expected results are a better knowledge and understanding of the behavior of the mango planted and driven in high density orchard, and the identification of the advantages and disadvantages of this intensive driving mode.
As part of phase 2 of the Qualinnov project, trainee Gwenvael Le Guicher came to support the FCR Mangue project for 6 months (between March and August 2019) by analyzing the interactions between vegetative growth and reproduction in the mango tree. and the effects of the culture system.

Countries concerned: France / Reunion Island, Australia

Project leader: CIRAD

Donors: Prefecture of Reunion (Regional Cooperation Fund, RCF)

Duration: 2 years (2019 - 2021)

Partners:

• CIRAD in Reunion, HortSys Research Unit
• Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF)