Agrion organises a technical meeting 13 December 2023 starting at 14.30 dedicated to the presentation of the phytosanitary balance sheet and results on the varietal screening of strawberry, blueberry and raspberry and to the presentation of the results of the first observations on agri-voltaic on blueberry.
The meeting, which will be held in Italian, can also be followed remotely via Zoom.
The process of varietal selection is an extremely lengthy and complex procedure that can take over ten years of study and experimentation before the new variety can be commercialized.
"Our task is to provide precise guidance to farmers interested in cultivating a specific product. If the research results are positive, in the final stages of experimentation, we compile the official lists of the Piedmont Region, which contain the names of the most promising varieties recommended to producers for cultivation," explains Lorenzo Berra, the technical-scientific coordinator of the Foundation.
Currently, the Agrion Foundation is evaluating approximately 1000 varieties of different species, with over 100 solely in the fruit sector: remarkable numbers, especially considering that only 1% or 2% of these varieties yield satisfactory results. Researchers, both in the laboratory and in the field, study their response to attacks from pests and adverse weather conditions, such as heavy rains or drought.
An example is provided by cherries, which, in the case of particularly frequent and violent rains, tend to split, risking bacterial and parasite attacks: faced with this emergency, the Agrion Foundation works to identify cherry varieties less susceptible to splitting, thus being able to recommend them to producers in areas most affected by these types of climatic phenomena.
However, varietal selection is not limited to finding better and more resilient varieties, as its task also includes promoting the competitiveness of small and large producers in the region in the market: "varietal selection allows us to influence the availability of certain products throughout the year.
Some varieties of fruit and vegetables, for example, ripen after the traditional ones: this extension of the ripening calendar represents a valuable delay that allows presenting these fruits on the market during a period of intense commercial competition," states Berra.
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