Historical programming period — scheme no longer open to new applications
SICA CENTREX: developing a new agricultural sector with FEADER
Occitanie· Agriculture & élevage
How an agricultural experimental station drew on nearly 50 000 € in European funding to test new sweet potato varieties and open up diversification prospects for local producers. SICA CENTREX, the Roussillon fruit and vegetable experimental center based in Torreilles (Pyrénées-Orientales), obtained 49 391,08 € in FEADER funding under the Languedoc-Roussillon Rural Development Program 2014-2020.
Funding obtained
€49,391
Total project cost
€129,694
Funding rate
38%
Instrument
Grant
The company
SICA CENTREX, the Roussillon fruit and vegetable experimental center, is based in Torreilles, in the Pyrénées-Orientales department.
It belongs to the network of regional fruit and vegetable experimentation stations. Its mission is to bridge fundamental research and agricultural production: testing technical solutions, evaluating varieties and producing reference data useful to farmers.
The institutional fact sheet identifies the beneficiary under the name "Sica CENTREX". The national European funds portal also refers to the beneficiary as Centrex66 — both names refer to the same entity.
The initial need
The project aimed to promote sweet potato as a diversification crop for local producers. The goal was not simply to fund a new planting: it was about producing technical knowledge to help farmers decide whether this crop could become an economically attractive complementary activity.
The chairman of SICA CENTREX, Jean-Pierre Bails, summarized the approach as follows: developing new local production sectors thanks to European funding.
- Diversify the area's agricultural production.
- Innovate in agricultural practices.
- Identify new commercial outlets.
- Improve production techniques (cutting propagation).
- Transfer results to producers.
The funded project
Three lines of work were planned: testing more varieties to compare their characteristics and performance, studying commercial outlets by distinguishing between fresh and processed markets, and improving propagation techniques, in particular by refining the cutting propagation technique.
- Comparative variety trials.
- Study of commercial outlets (fresh / processed).
- Experimentation with cutting propagation techniques.
- Dissemination of technical reference data to producers.
Funding plan
Total cost
€129,694
Public funding
€49,391
Other known funding
€80,302
Amounts published by the institutional portals (Europe en France and Europe en Occitanie), which are consistent with each other. The exact breakdown of the additional funding (80 302,43 €) is not specified in the fact sheets consulted.
The scheme used
The project was supported by FEADER (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development), under the Languedoc-Roussillon Rural Development Program 2014-2020 — a programming period that is now historical, distinct from FEADER 2023-2027.
Results and outcomes
- Achieved
Technical results disseminated to the industry (including substrate trials for cutting germination): according to the trade press, potting soil and potting soil on coco coir proved the most favorable, with germination occurring around 30 days and a germination rate above 80%.
Results are distinguished by nature (achieved, stated objective, forecast, estimate) — never presented as certain without this distinction.
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Sources and transparency
- The Roussillon fruit and vegetable experimental center (Sica CENTREX) promotes sweet potato as a diversification crop — Europe en France
Confirms the beneficiary (Centrex66), the FEADER fund, the European amount and the total cost of the project.
- Promoting new crops and local production — Europe en Occitanie
Confirms the same project (beneficiary SICA CENTREX), the FEADER attribution and the testimonial from chairman Jean-Pierre Bails.
Sweet potato cultivation under trial at several experimental stations — RéussirConfirms the technical context of the trials conducted by SICA Centrex (germination substrates, success rate).
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