The research projects
Food insecurity in Africa
January 2005
Marked recent trends in Africa are tensions over farm prices, competition from energy crops and large-scale buy-ups of farmland in the poorest countries. Coupled with sustained population growth, they have made food insecurity in Africa a topical issue again, while the global food outlook also ...
Geodynamics of mineral resources in West Africa
January 2006
Mineral resources account for more than 50% of exports from the 19 West African countries involved in the Agremoa programme. They play a crucial role in the region’s development. The IRD and its partners are working to improve understanding of the geological structure and geodynamics of the West ...
Improving rice growing in Africa
January 1996
Rice, the first cereal humans ever cultivated, is a vital resource for many Southern countries. In Africa, rice yellow mottle virus is a major problem, causing considerable damage and heavy losses at harvest. Prophylactic measures have been employed to limit the spread of the disease, but the ...
Intermittent preventive treatment against malaria: fresh hope for children
January 2005
Malaria kills one to three million people a year worldwide, most of them in tropical Africa. It is the foremost cause of infant death in the Sahelian zone, especially among under-fives, and increasing drug resistance is making this situation worse. New anti-malaria treatments and fresh ...
Revising the model of trophic cascades in tropical lakes
January 2004
Shallow tropical lakes supply a majority of the water resources for people in the South, but algal and bacterial blooms frequently spoil the water’s quality and jeopardise its use. Because the ecological models developed for temperate lakes cannot be directly transposed to tropical situations, ...
Rodent population biology in flood areas of the Sahelo-Sudanian zone
November 2010
Rodent pest control is vital for protecting crops and improving farm yields. In response to partners in Mali and Senegal who want to adopt affordable, effective and non-polluting rodent control strategies, IRD researchers are conducting research to improve understanding of the population ...
Saharan migration: the truth a far cry from popular myths
January 2004
Migration from sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa has increased as never before over the past 15 years or so. What routes are the migrants following and how are they settling in North Africa? What social and spatial changes are these new settlement patterns generating? What effects are today’s ...
Synergy between insecticide and repellent to combat malaria-carrying mosquitoes
January 2007
With 40% of the world’s population, mainly in the poorest countries, exposed to malaria risk and over 500 million people falling ill with the disease each year, it is still the most worrying tropical parasite disease. Most deaths from malaria occur in sub-Saharan Africa and most of those who die ...
The African monsoon in the spotlight
January 2000
Since 2000, French researchers have launched a vast international multidisciplinary programme to improve understanding of the African monsoon and its variations. In 2006, exceptional resources were mobilised for large-scale field surveys. The African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses programme ...
To halt land degradation in sub-Saharan Africa
January 2003
The IRD is closely involved in the Desert Margins Programme, whose aim is to halt land degradation in sub-Saharan Africa and open the way to sustainable farming there. The programme is supported by the United National Environment Programme and the World Environment Fund. More than 120 million ...
