EPITAG is an Inria Associate team that is part of the LIRIMA (International Laboratory for Computer Sciences and Applied Mathematics). It was launched in 2017 between Inria team BIOCORE, now MACBES, and the Universities of Douala, Dschang & Yaoundé I, in collaboration with INRAE and Cirad. Since 2022, it is supported by the TSARA programme at INRAE and by the French Embassy in Cameroon.
EPITAG gathers French and Cameroonian researchers and students with a background in dynamical systems and control and an interest in crop diseases.
EPITAG gathers French and Cameroonian researchers and students with a background in dynamical systems and control and an interest in crop diseases.
EPITAG in short
Pests and pathogens are responsible for considerable losses in food and cash crops. Their control is hence a major issue, especially in countries such as Cameroon, where agriculture is an important sector in terms of revenues and employment. To help design efficient strategies for pest management, mathematical models are particularly relevant.
Our main objective is to study the epidemiology and sustainable management of tropical crop diseases, with a focus on Cameroon. Our approach consists in developing and analysing dynamical models describing plant-parasite interactions, in order to better understand, predict and control the evolution of damages in crops. To ensure the relevance of our models, field experts and stakeholders need to be closely associated. We focus on pest and pathogens that affect major staple food and cash crops, such as cocoa plant mirids, plantain and banana plant-parasitic nematodes, coffee berry borers, coffee leaf rust, maize stalk borers, cabbage diamondback moths, papaya mealybugs, etc. To tackle these issues, we jointly supervise master and PhD students.
Keywords: mathematical models; dynamical systems; control theory; optimisation; plant epidemiology; tropical crops; crop pests and pathogens; sustainable and environmentally-friendly control methods; integrated pest management
Our main objective is to study the epidemiology and sustainable management of tropical crop diseases, with a focus on Cameroon. Our approach consists in developing and analysing dynamical models describing plant-parasite interactions, in order to better understand, predict and control the evolution of damages in crops. To ensure the relevance of our models, field experts and stakeholders need to be closely associated. We focus on pest and pathogens that affect major staple food and cash crops, such as cocoa plant mirids, plantain and banana plant-parasitic nematodes, coffee berry borers, coffee leaf rust, maize stalk borers, cabbage diamondback moths, papaya mealybugs, etc. To tackle these issues, we jointly supervise master and PhD students.
Keywords: mathematical models; dynamical systems; control theory; optimisation; plant epidemiology; tropical crops; crop pests and pathogens; sustainable and environmentally-friendly control methods; integrated pest management
Ovide Arino Outreach Award 2023
The OAOA prize is awarded to a young researcher from a Southern country, on the basis of a remarkable contribution in mathematical or theoretical biology, carried out in collaboration with a European or French speaking country.
Clotilde Djuikem’s PhD Defence
Clotilde defended her PhD thesis at Université Côte d’Azur on January 5th 2023. She worked on the modelling, analysis and control of coffee leaf rust.
