Acta in the French overseas territories
With two overseas institutes, Armeflhor (Reunion Island) and IT2 (West Indies), Acta and its network provide answers to farmers in overseas territories and benefit in return from the experience of the latter, pioneers in agroecology.
Link between all actors of the agricultural world
Acta, which is present in the French overseas region through the overseas agricultural technical institutes (Armeflhor and IT2), acts as an interface between research, agricultural education, chambers of agriculture, producer organizations and agricultural companies. By promoting numerous partnerships with technical institutes in the sector, Acta supports the work of the two overseas institutes and encourages the sharing of experience. At the same time, the specific skills of the overseas institutes in terms of agro-ecological practices and adaptation to climate change constitute a capital that the other agricultural technical institutes can build-on.
Agriculture in the overseas territories has many assets but also faces major challenges. Faced with increasingly frequent climatic hazards, it must respond to the growing local demand for food, which requires an increase in agricultural production while respecting agroecological practices. These territories are also subject to constraints related to the distance from the continental France and the European Union.
Acta leads the Networks of Innovation and Agricultural Transfer in Overseas Regions
The RITAs or Agricultural Innovation and Transfer Networks in Overseas Regions are present in the 7 French overseas territories (Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Reunion Island, Mayotte, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, and Wallis and Futuna). These networks bring together local stakeholders in agricultural development, in order to better articulate research work, public interventions and the needs of agricultural professionals, with a view to transferring the results of applied research within and between Overseas territories.
At the national level, Acta and CIRAD provide inter-overseas leadership to promote exchanges.
RITA currently involves some 150 structures and 20 thematic groups working together.
Acta drives the reference networks for crop diversification
The plant diversification production reference networks (RRDV) are part of a specific POSEI French measure for the development of plant diversification sectors in French overseas Regions.
Under the aegis of ODEADOM and the Ministries of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty and Overseas Regions, the RRDV aims to collect and analyze technical and economic data on certain promising crops (excluding sugarcane and fruit banana).
Acta is conducting this action in partnership with the agricultural technical institutes of the French overseas territories, the chambers of agriculture, producer organizations and Idele (French Livestock Institute), which is carrying out an identical mission in the field of animal production.
Based on the experience acquired in the framework of the Reference livestock Network, the action has so far been implemented in the West Indies and Reunion and is based on :
- voluntary farmers whose practices are deemed to be more efficient than the average;
- technical and economic monitoring over time of each production, carried out by advisors from chambers of agriculture and producer organizations;
- the development of a tool for recording technical and economic data, specifically adapted to the needs of the project, with a view to developing, in the long term, standard cases based on a model;
- monitoring and technical assistance provided by Acta, CTIFL and Idele at the national level and the regional coordinators of the technical institutes in the French overseas territories or the chambers of agriculture;
- national project management by Acta, with the support of Idele.
These reference networks for plant diversification aims to develop local plant sectors by identifying margins for technical progress according to the farming systems, advising producers on technical itineraries to be promoted, supporting group dynamics, and improving knowledge on the constraints and additional costs specific to local production in order to better support agricultural policies.
Taking up the major challenge of agro-ecology in the French overseas Regions
Permanent pest pressure due to the tropical climate, limited regulatory possibilities for the use of plant protection products, high input costs, small size of the territories, making environmental and health problems even more acute than in metropolitan France… These are the challenges facing ultra-marine agriculture.
Acta, in collaboration with the relevant agricultural technical institutes, is coordinating the EcophytoPIC portal, which proposes concrete applications of the principles of integrated pest management (IMP), adapted to crops in tropical environments, including sugarcane, banana, fruit crops, perfume, aromatic and medicinal plants and vegetable, ornamental and food crops.