Crucial role of nocturnal pollination in a wild shrub related to BLUEBERRIES - Papel crucial de la polinización nocturna en un arbusto silvestre emparentado con los ARÁNDANOS

Photo source: http://vaplantatlas.org

Studies of pollination biology are largely diurnally biased, especially in plant species whose flowers conform to diurnal pollination syndromes. Though these syndromes can be useful in generating hypotheses regarding a species’ primary pollinators, they may also lead to incorrect assumptions. This study explores the relative contributions of diurnal and nocturnal pollination to fruit set in Lyonia lucida, an ericaceous shrub of the southeastern United States whose floral form suggests pollination by bumble bees. Floral visitation to L. lucida and pollen loads of visitors were quantified in a population of the species in Central Florida (U.S.A.), and the relative contributions of diurnal and nocturnal pollination tested. Mating system characteristics of L. lucida were also examined. Results show L. lucida flowers are visited mainly by nocturnal moths, who are capable of carrying large pollen loads, and nocturnal pollination is the primary driver of fruit set. In addition L. lucida at the study site shows severe barriers to selfing and strong pollen limitation. This is the first time a population of an ericaceous species has been shown to be pollinated primarily by nocturnal floral visitors and suggests pollination biologists should not be so quick to discount these potentially important pollinators.
Source: John W. Benning. 2015. The American Midland Naturalist 174(2):204-217. http://www.bioone.org 

FRUITS: The consumption habits can help reduce the use of irrigation water - FRUTAS: Los hábitos de consumo pueden contribuir a reducir el uso de agua de riego

David Masumoto settles on a patio chair on a cool San Joaquin Valley evening, perhaps the last one before summer converts the valley into a kiln. The author and organic farmer has just sold the last box of his "organic, ugly, fabulous" Gold Dust peaches and Rose Diamond nectarines, varieties that ripened early and came in small in this drought year.

Photo from http://www.dljproduce.com

Two of those sobriquets attached to his fruit are hard to dispute — they were cultivated organically on his 80-acre farm south of Fresno, and they are hard to call anything but fabulous, the petite stone fruit offering back a sweetly distilled fraction of the water that went into them. That water, and its parsimonious yield, are on the mind of Masumoto, whose literary ruminations on the fate of the peach and of small-scale farming cast him as the industry's moral agronomist.

As someone who advocates sustainable farming, what lessons do you take from the drought?

My latest thing about the whole water situation is seeing this as an opportunity. Because it's a driver of change, like sometimes natural disasters are. You know: out of a tornado, a town rebuilds itself as green. An earthquake happens and everyone realizes they have to bring things up to a seismic safety level. It was a gradual disaster that "suddenly" hit now — as if it suddenly hit! People are saying, we have to be conscious of this, and what can we do to be sustainable? So all these questions are starting to arise, like, where should you be farming? Where should you not be farming? Based on water.

Why is this realization that California is in a drought happening now, as opposed to last year or the year before?

It was partly when urban people suddenly realized there's something going on. As a writer, I love it, because it's the power of story.... You have drama, you have tension, you have the conflict. Everyone starts to say, who's the protagonist, the antagonist. Who's the good guy? Who's the bad guy?... You have characters. Gov. Jerry Brown suddenly became this main character. Of course, he's the governor, but he's defending ag! This is a little twist in this story line, this plot. Out of this, is there going to rise a single voice as a spokesperson, either in ag or in urban use or the environment? The environmentalists, I sense, have been very quiet in this drought.... I think they're trying to lay low, so no one will start saying, well, wait a minute. That's why they love the statistics of ag using 80% of the state's water. And it's truly only 40%. It's 80% of the developed water. What does that mean? It means a lot of water is still used in natural sources and it's not counted. That's why you get these number games — it takes a gallon of water for an almond! Again, as a story, it became the metaphor. It is, in one sense, the wrong metaphor.... Suddenly you have almonds becoming this character. I thought, wow, I'm glad it wasn't peaches!

Some peaches do. Others, like the Arizona native peach, the Desert Gold, requires no more than ordinary rainfall. If you persist in growing plants unsuitable for the environment all that happens is that the quality declines and the cost rises. California has been indulging in...

But I think because it has now become a story, suddenly people are interested in public policy. Because there is no clear political good or bad guy yet, they're actually talking policy more.

How has the drought changed your cultivation practices?

We've been experimenting with this petite peach method this year, where we're cutting back water use 30%, 40%, 50% on some select areas of the orchard to see how it responds. Part of my thinking initially was: How much are we over-watering to chase a cosmetic quality? And it's mainly size. Can you not grow a small, water-efficient peach that has just as intense flavor? And you can.

I realize all these years I've been pumping them up with fertilizer and water to try to get them artificially big. So we backed off on the water. They're small this year, but, good god, the flavor is great. It's fantastic. It's probably the most intense I've ever had.

Will consumers buy them or will they look for the big, cosmetically perfect fruit?

We're trying to get the markets, our buyers, to understand it, and hopefully someone to eat one and say it doesn't matter, the size.... A lot of the buyers are saying: This is great. Good, that means their consumers are kind of getting over the size issue. We're calling them petite peaches, because if I called them drought-tolerant peaches, or water-deprived peaches, it doesn't sound the same.... Part of it is branding. They trust our brand. They'll go, "Oh, this is a Masumoto peach, let's try it." They are not seeing the big versus small.

If you look at fresh market grapes, every year they've gotten bigger and bigger. Think of strawberries. Do you remember there used to be little ones? They're huge. They're like a little fist. Because size is just driving it all. We don't think of that in terms of what it's costing us. What are we paying for to get that size? And I contend that a lot is water. So, what's the natural use of water? If these peaches are naturally small, I don't need to water them as much. Let me just grow them naturally. I realized, I don't think these peaches want to be big. What's the matter with that? That's my breakthrough: Oh, my god, I may have been over-watering all these years. Why? Because we had access [to water]. It was cheap. It was supposedly free. And it's not now.

Source: Geoffrey Mohan (www.latimes.com)

Achievements and prospects in the development of BERRY crops in Republic of Moldova - Logros y perspectivas en el desarrollo de los cultivos de BERRIES en República de Moldavia

The berry production sector is one of perspective that can cope with internal and external market and it is a strong point in agricultural development in Moldova. Berry crops in Moldova are raspberry (280 ha), strawberry (270 ha), black currant (190 ha) and gooseberry (40 ha). Parascovia SAVA and Vasile ŞARBAN give a detailed description of the state-of-the-art and prospects of the berry industry in this eastern European country.
Full length paper: http://horticulturejournal.usamv.ro/pdf/2015/art15.pdf

CEBOLLAS con más zinc contra la malnutrición mineral - ONIONS with more zinc against mineral malnutrition

Foto de http://mundoagropecuario.com

En una investigación realizada en la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Agrónomos de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) se han analizado los efectos de diferentes fertilizantes de zinc, de origen sintético y natural, en cultivos de cebolla bajo condiciones de invernadero.

Dependiendo de las características de los suelos y de los complejos orgánicos aplicados, las cebollas obtenidas llegaron a tener hasta cuatro veces más contenido de zinc que cuando no se aportó zinc al cultivo, por lo que serían una buena fuente para satisfacer la ingesta diaria humana de este mineral recomendada por el National Research Council.

La deficiencia en zinc es un problema nutricional muy común en los humanos, siendo una de las causas de esta deficiencia el bajo contenido de este elemento en los cultivos comestibles. El zinc es un micronutriente esencial para diferentes funciones en el cuerpo humano, ya que es requerido para la actividad de enzimas involucradas en funciones metabólicas, bioquímicas, inmunológicas y clínicas.

Por ello, numerosas funciones corporales se ven afectadas por esta deficiencia. Se estima que alrededor de un tercio de la población del mundo sufre este tipo de carencia nutricional que se está extendiendo a países desarrollados, especialmente en Europa.

El problema de la malnutrición mineral puede ser abordado con el incremento de la biodisponibilidad de elementos minerales en cultivos comestibles. Las estrategias agronómicas para aumentar las concentraciones de elementos minerales en los tejidos vegetales comestibles se basan generalmente en la aplicación de fertilizantes y/o en la mejora de la solubilización y movilización de los elementos minerales presentes en el suelo.

La biofortificación es un enfoque relativamente nuevo que tiene como objetivo mejorar el contenido de micronutrientes en los alimentos de origen vegetal de primera necesidad para mejorar el estado nutricional de la población. El aumento de micronutrientes en los cultivos se puede llevar a cabo mediante los métodos convencionales o métodos de ingeniería genética.

La biofortificación agronómica a través de la fertilización aplicada sobre suelos, semillas y/o hojas ayuda a aumentar el contenido en nutrientes de los cultivos sin modificar la composición genética de los mismos.

En este tema lleva tiempo trabajando el grupo de investigación Contaminación de Agroecosistemas por las Prácticas Agrícolas de la UPM. Así, han estudiado la influencia de diferentes complejos orgánicos de zinc de origen sintético y natural en la biofortificación agronómica de la cebolla, cultivada en diferentes tipos de suelo, bajo condiciones de invernadero.

Estos investigadores estudiaron la efectividad de 8 complejos orgánicos de zinc y la eficacia de las distintas fuentes se evaluó principalmente en términos de rendimiento y de concentración de zinc en planta, aunque también se estudiaron otros parámetros como el contenido en carotenoides y clorofila.

Se determinaron, además, las concentraciones de zinc que quedaron en el suelo después del cultivo y a qué fracciones del suelo se encontraba asociado el micronutriente, así como la influencia de diferentes parámetros del suelo como el grado de acidez y el potencial redox en la efectividad de los diferentes fertilizantes de zinc.

La aplicación de los complejos orgánicos de zinc al cultivo de cebolla mejoró tanto el rendimiento como la concentración de zinc en las plantas y, dependiendo de las características de los suelos y de los complejos aplicados, el contenido de zinc en la planta llegó a ser hasta cuatro veces superior respecto al contenido cuando no se aportó zinc al cultivo. El trabajo ha sido publicado recientemente en la revista Scientia Horticulturae.

FUENTE: http://mundoagropecuario.com

Using SUPERMARKETS as extensions of our own fridges? - Usando a los SUPERMERCADOS como extensiones de nuestras propias neveras (refrigeradores, heladeras)?

A taste for convenience could be changing the way Australians shop for vegetables, according to peak industry body AUSVEG, with new research finding that consumers are increasingly buying vegetables in formats that suit their immediate needs with little left over.

Photo from http://www.cultilene.com

The latest Project Harvest report, released by consumer research group Colmar Brunton, has found that an increase in sales of small pre-packaged vegetables and individual vegetables over the last eight months has been matched by a drop in larger pre-packaged formats. “Many consumers are mindful of not wanting to buy more vegetables than they’re going to use, and we’re seeing this in the latest research,” said AUSVEG spokesperson, Mr Kurt Hermann.

“These findings really reflect the fact that some Australians are treating supermarkets like extensions of their own fridges,” said Mr Hermann. “When they go vegetable shopping, these consumers are only planning a couple of meals ahead, because they’ll return in a night or two. This means that they’re looking for portion sizes that they can grab, use immediately and have nothing left over. In some cases this leads them to buying loose leaves, or convenient formats like salad trays and small pre-packaged bags. In other cases, it means they’re only looking to buy one or two broccoli heads or chillies instead of a full tray.”

The report has also identified that wanting to avoid waste is preventing many consumers from buying more fresh vegetables, including staples like peas and broccoli. It’s a particular concern around lettuce purchases, with nearly 40% of shoppers saying they don’t buy more lettuce because they don’t want to waste any. The amount of consumers buying individual lettuce leaves has more than doubled since March this year, and now constitutes a full quarter of shoppers. Meanwhile, the amount of consumers buying large pre-packaged bags of lettuce leaves has dropped by more than a third since November last year.

“Australian growers could capitalise on this trend by offering consumer-driven products, like pre-packing fresh vegetables in single-meal servings, either by themselves or mixed together,” said Mr Hermann. “By offering vegetables to shoppers in easy-to-enjoy formats, the vegetable industry could help Australians make healthy diet choices and increase overall vegetable consumption.”

AUSVEG is the leading horticultural body representing Australian vegetable and potato growers. Project Harvest is funded by Horticulture Innovation Australia using the National Vegetable Levy and funds from the Australian Government.

Source: http://www.hydroponics.com.au

BLUEBERRIES: New volumes forecast for Argentina - ARÁNDANOS: Nuevos volúmenes pronosticados para Argentina

http://www.ffsp.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Flicker.Berry_.Clusters.jpg

On Monday, September 21st, Concordia (Entre Ríos province) suffered a strong storm, with lots of water and some hail events, which affected to a greater or lesser extent various areas of the place.

It is hard to know with certainty how affected the region’s offer will be, since every affected producer is assessing the consequences of the event. Preliminarily, and according to the data collected from partners and technicians of APAMA (Asociación de Productores de Arándano de la Mesopotamia), it is estimated that after this weather event, the offer from Argentina could be reduced by about 12%, which would represent a total exportable amount of 16,000 t for 2015, compared to the 16,500 t of the 2014 season. APAMA’s technical group is working on a new production forecast; however, the region will have an exportable volume of about 6,500 t. 

Thanks to the variety turnover that has been taking place in the area, various plots affected by the hail corresponded to very early varieties, such as Snowchaser, which had been in harvest since week 35 and whose production peak has already passed.

Source: http://www.argblueberry.com

US' first-ever national FOOD WASTE reduction goal - Por primera vez EEUU se propone una meta nacional de reducción del DESPERDICIO DE ALIMENTOS

Source: http://archive.onearth.org

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Environmental Protection Agency Deputy Administrator Stan Meiburg announced the United States' first-ever national food waste reduction goal, calling for a 50% reduction by 2030. As part of the effort, the federal government will lead a new partnership with charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, the private sector and local, state and tribal governments to reduce food loss and waste in order to improve overall food security and conserve our nation's natural resources. The announcement occurs just one week before world leaders gather at the United Nations General Assembly in New York to address sustainable development practices, including sustainable production and consumption. As the global population continues to grow, so does the need for food waste reduction.

"The United States enjoys the most productive and abundant food supply on earth, but too much of this food goes to waste," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "An average family of four leaves more than two million calories, worth nearly $1500, uneaten each year. Our new reduction goal demonstrates America's leadership on a global level in in getting wholesome food to people who need it, protecting our natural resources, cutting environmental pollution and promoting innovative approaches for reducing food loss and waste."

Food loss and waste in the United States accounts for approximately 31 percent—or 133 billion pounds—of the overall food supply available to retailers and consumers and has far-reaching impacts on food security, resource conservation and climate change. Food loss and waste is single largest component of disposed U.S. municipal solid waste, and accounts for a significant portion of U.S. methane emissions. Landfills are the third largest source of methane in the United States. Furthermore, experts have projected that reducing food losses by just 15 percent would provide enough food for more than 25 million Americans every year, helping to sharply reduce incidences of food insecurity for millions.

"Let's feed people, not landfills. By reducing wasted food in landfills, we cut harmful methane emissions that fuel climate change, conserve our natural resources, and protect our planet for future generations" said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. "Today's announcement presents a major environmental, social and public health opportunity for the U.S., and we're proud to be part of a national effort to reduce the food that goes into landfills."

Ongoing federal initiatives are already building momentum for long-term success. In 2013, USDA and EPA launched the U.S. Food Waste Challenge, creating a platform for leaders and organizations across the food chain to share best practices on ways to reduce, recover, and recycle food loss and waste. By the end of 2014, the U.S. Food Waste Challenge had over 4,000 active participants, well surpassing its initial goal of reaching 1,000 participants by 2020.

In addition to the U.S. Food Waste Challenge, USDA has unveiled several food loss reduction initiatives over the past few years, including an app to help consumers safely store food and understand food date labels, new guidance to manufacturers on donating misbranded or sub-spec foods, and research on innovative technologies to make reducing food loss and waste cost effective. USDA will build on these successes with additional initiatives targeting food loss and waste reduction throughout its programs and policies.

In addition, today, USDA is launching a new consumer education campaign through its Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion with information on food loss and waste facts and reduction tips. Moreover, a new section on ChooseMyPlate.gov will educate consumers about reducing food waste to help stretch household budgets.

USDA and EPA will also continue to encourage the private sector—food service companies, institutions, restaurants, grocery stores, and more—to set their own aggressive goals for reducing food loss and waste in the months ahead. Organizations such as the Consumer Goods Forum, which recently approved a new resolution to halve food waste within the operations of its 400 retailer and manufacturers members by 2025, are helping to lead the way.

The United States is leading global efforts to address the threat of climate change. The first-ever national food waste goal is just one part of the Obama Administration's commitment to protecting our environment for future generations. Since President Obama took office in 2009, the US has increased solar generation by more than ten-fold, tripled electricity production from wind power, and reduced greenhouse gas pollution in the US to its lowest levels in nearly 20 years. By setting achievable environmental goals, this Administration is making strides to help boost the economy and protect the health of American families for the long-term.

Source: http://www.usda.gov

Argentina: Nara INTA, a perfect CARROT for the dehydrated food industry - Nara INTA, una ZANAHORIA perfecta para la industria del deshidratado

Photo source: http://www.aimdigital.com.ar

Carrots are one of the most preferred vegetables in Argentina, as annual production stands between 200,000 and 240,000 t of roots in 7000 to 9500 ha and per capita consumption stands at 6 kg/year. To boost this industry, technicians from INTA La Consulta -Mendoza- developed the NARA INTA, a carrot variety with higher percentage of solids, better color and lower percentage of discards, requirements demanded by the dehydration industry. According to Maria Soledad Alessandro, creator of the new variety and technician at INTA La Consulta, Mendoza, "Nara INTA has a higher solid content and a better color than traditional carrots, which makes it a particularly suited for the dehydration industry."

"The new variety represents a breakthrough compared to existing material because it has 12.8% soluble solids and 16.9% total solids," she said. Additionally, it has a better color in its roots, a higher content of carotenoids and a lower percentage of discards.

In the framework of a technological transfer agreement with the Unilever of Argentina company to obtain suitable vegetable cultivars for the dehydrated industry, INTA worked on a genetic improvement plan to increase the carrot’s solid content, color, and to decrease its discard percentage.

To obtain it, Alessandro began working based on the Danvers variety, which has 10.6 percent soluble solids and 13.7 percent total solids. "Selection consisted of the removal of defective plants in the field, discarding roots in the washing process, defects of color and choosing roots with higher percentages of total soluble solids, color and better percentages of xylem in the laboratory," she said. 

The selected roots were stored in the refrigerator and later planted in isolation cages with hives for pollination, so that the elite seed was harvested and used in the next cycle.

There were positive responses to the selection in each cycle, which meant improvements in the percentages and total soluble solids, increasing to 12.8 and 16.9 percent, respectively. The percentage of xylem was decreased from 47.8 to 41.9 percent and the color on shoulders, skin and xylem was significantly improved. Meanwhile, the content of carotenoids, predecessor of vitamin A, increased from 233 to 321 parts per million (ppm).

Sources: infocampo.com.ar, www.freshplaza.com

Las principales 12 FRUTAS y HORTALIZAS desarrolladas últimamente en Israel - The top 12 FRUITS and VEGETABLES developed lately in Israel

Melón galia

Desde la primera mitad del siglo XX, los magos agrícolas israelíes se han asociado con la madre naturaleza para llevar nuevas variedades de frutas y vegetales al mercado mundial, desde la calabaza de vívido color hasta los pimientos sin semillas. Cada año, Israel exporta más de $2 mil millones de lo que produce – los tomates son el cuarto mayor producto – y está entre los mejores desarrolladores de variedades del mundo de mejor aspecto, mejor sabor, resistente a las enfermedades y más nutritivas.

Según Harry Paris, un científico senior de la Organización de Investigación Instituto Agrícola Volcani – patrocinado por el gobierno, una de las primeras historias de éxito en esta área es el robusto pepino sin semilla Bet Alpha, introducido en 1936. Sus descendientes en todo el mundo todavía siguen fuertes. Los ananás Yoqne’am y los melones Ha’Ogen, de la década de 1950, también establecen un estándar comercial global.

“Los dos melones y los pepinos han tenido un gran impacto internacional”, dice Paris. “Su calidad inspiró mejoras sucesivas por parte de cultivadores genetistas israelíes. Hoy en día, una incontable variedad [de producción híbrida israelí] ha sido cultivada por profesionales”.

Es probable que se encuentren tipos de frutas y vegetales (así como flores de invernadero), inventados en Israel, que crecen en mayor cantidad en el extranjero que en la tierra de su desarrollo, simplemente porque el pequeño Israel no puede producir en la misma escala que países como los Estados Unidos. Pero la innovación azul y blanca está en cada bocado, no importa donde crezca. ISRAEL21c eligió esta “ensalada” de una docena de las mejores frutas y vegetales de creación israelí. Busque muchos más en su mercado local.

1. El melón Galia, lanzado al mercado en 1974 por los cultivadores Zvi Karchi y Anneke Govers, se convirtió en un éxito multimillonario, en dólares, internacional. Un descendiente de Ha’Ogen, Galia, ha tenido un éxito tan espectacular, dice Paris, porque se ve, huele y sabe bien. Todos estos factores contribuyen a tentar a la gente a probar la fruta y luego volver por más… y más. Los licenciatarios Volcani siguieron desarrollando descendientes adicionales de Galia que son populares en todo el mundo.

2. La calabaza Orangetti spagueti, ahora la única calabaza espagueti vendida en Israel, fue el primer vegetal israelí híbrido cultivado en los Estados Unidos bajo su propio nombre. Su color naranja intenso (en oposición a su primo amarillo pálido) lo hace de mejor aspecto, con mejor sabor y más rico en beta-caroteno y otros antioxidantes. Paris comenzó a desarrollar Orangetti en 1979 y fue lanzado en 1986.

Orangetti tiene mejor aspecto y sabor que otras calabazas spaguetti

3. El nectarina-mango de Ben Dor Fruits & Nurseries tiene forma de corazón con una suave piel. Llevó 10 años perfeccionar la fruta y salió al mercado en junio de 2012 en Israel, el RU y Sudáfrica,. Ben Dor también cultiva frutas de carozo híbridas como el plumegranate (una ciruela de color granada), la ciruela en forma de limón, el melocotón pita y muchas otras.

4. El pomelo híbrido pomelit es otra innovación de Ben Dor. Comercializado en el extranjero como Sweetie, esta jugosa fruta es más dulce y menos ácida que un pomelo, más pequeña que un pomelo y mucho más fácil de pelar. Además, el pomelit ha demostrado reducir el colesterol en la sangre y mejorar la actividad anti-oxidante en el cuerpo.

5. Angello, el primer pimiento sin semillas del mundo, ganó el Premio a la Innovación Fruit Logistica en 2012. El desarrollo del mini pimiento rojo sin semillas comenzó hace seis años en la compañía israelí de semillas Zeraim Gedera. Hasta ahora ha crecido sólo en Israel y España, y dado que impacta en el mercado mundial seguirán variedades adicionales en otros colores.

6. El tomate Black Galaxy fue introducido en los mercados internacionales a principios de 2012, pero ya había tenido gran repercusión en su Israel natal. La esencia de la ensalada oscura fue desarrollada por Tecnological Seeds DM utilizando un pigmento derivado de arándanos. Black Galaxy no sólo tiene aspecto exótico sino que también contiene mayores concentraciones de vitamina C que las variedades de tomates de jardín.

7. La calabaza Goldy zucchini fue desarrollada por el Volcani de Harry Paris y presentado en 1983. “Sigue siendo el zucchini de mejor aspecto, y sigue vendiéndose 30 años después”, dice. Goldy es popular en los principales mercados del exterior, y su color amarillo brillante hace que sea menos húmedo y más sabroso que similares calabazas. Paris recomienda freír rebanadas como chuletas, o usar Goldy en tartas y otros platos de queso, ya que nunca es aguado.

8. Nano Sandía – más dulce que el original, de color ligeramente diferente y no más pesado que tres kilogramos – es un reciente nuevo producto resultado de tres años de desarrollo por parte del Dr. Eyal Vardi, CEO de Origene Seeds. Hishtil Nurseries e Itay Gal, un agricultor del Moshav Ein Yahav, cultivaron los primeros como una prueba y el melón fue un éxito.

Árbol de la albahaca de Hishtil puede crecer en el interior

9. Otra innovación de Hishtil es el mini árbol de albahaca, una solución innovadora al problema de la naturalmente corta vida útil de la hierba. Injertando dos tipos de plantas de albahaca juntos, Hishtil obtuvo una cepa resistente con un tronco robusto y frondosas hojas aromáticas. Puede crecer al aire libre en un clima más cálido y ser llevada al interior durante el invierno.

10. La calabaza bellota TableSugar, presentada por Volcani en 2007 y comercializada por Origene Seeds, quita lo “soso” de este resistente vegetal. Tiene el doble de azúcar que la calabaza bellota común, es la mitad de su tamaño, y tiene una piel verde-negra que aumenta su vida útil y sabor. El sabor de sus castañas asadas ha hecho a TableSugar extremadamente popular. Dice Paris, quien pasó 12 años desarrollándola: “Compren un montón en julio, después manténganlo en la nevera algunos meses para que el almidón se convierta en azúcar. Son más dulces con la edad”. Y no tendrán la enfermedad oídio que aflige a muchas calabazas.

11. Los hermosos racimo (Truss) tomates, comunes en Europa, América del Norte, Japón e Israel fueron posibles por la introducción de genes que prolongan la vida en estanterías por parte de Hazera Genetics en cooperación con BonTom y el grupo de investigación de cultivos vegetales de la Universidad Hebrea. Los científicos de BonTom también están detrás de otros importantes avances del tomate, incluyendo los tomates cherry más dulces y más duraderos que debutaron en la década de los años 1990 y se convirtieron en el estándar mundial.

12. La manzana Anna – desarrollada por Efraín Slor, horticultor de Volcani, y que lleva el nombre de su hija – es una fruta del tipo Golden Delicious para cultivar en zonas donde las temperaturas invernales rara vez bajan hasta la congelación. La mayoría de las variedades de manzana necesitan el frío del invierno para desarrollarse, pero Anna madura a principios del verano y crece bien en climas cálidos como Egipto, Indonesia, el sur de California y el sur de Texas.

Manzanas Anna

Fuentes: Abigail Klein Leichman (diariojudio.com)

Too much woo for growers to go ORGANIC? - Demasiado cortejo a los productores para convertirse en ORGÁNICOS?

The Internet is awash with reports claiming that organic farming is more profitable for farmers than conventional agriculture. The latest spate of posts was based on a study recently published in PNAS by Washington State University researchers who found a price premium of 22 to 35 percent over the same conventionally grown food, despite yields that were 18 percent lower for organics.

Phot from http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org

This report echoes the conclusions of a 2009 UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) study, which also pointed to the “non-economic benefits” of organic agriculture–it’s supposed sustainability benefits. But the claims of improved profitability for farmers run up against some hard facts: organic farming in the West is far from booming, even as sales of organic foods are increasing sharply, albeit from a very low base. If there’s so much money to be made in organics, then why aren’t more farmers switching?

Declines in organic farms

While the consumer demand for organic food is rising, there are 16,525 organic farms in the U.S., only 0.8 percent of all farms. Most organic farms also are small—in Washington state, 30 percent of organic farms had less than $25,000 a year in sales, while just 9 percent had more than $1 million. The USDA also has found that most organic farms tend to be smaller (which it measures by having less than $250,000 in sales).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture does not keep data on farms that have dropped out of the National Organic Program, and changes in data collection between 2007 and 2012 make it nearly impossible to make that kind of comparison (for now—the USDA is conducting surveys that could reveal more data this or next year).

But other studies show a wobbly, at best, support for organic farming by farmers themselves. A 2010 study by Washington State University found that organic certifications in the state dropped by 18 (to 735), while five farms became certified organic. More recent state data shows that the number of organic farms has dropped slightly again in 2013, and acreage devoted to organics also dropped.

In 2007, the California Institute for Rural Studies found that while 600 farmers entered that state’s organic program (California’s the only state with its own organic registration process), 523 farmers dropped out of the program between 2003 and 2005 alone. Just last month the UK Guardian carried an article titled “Why are organic farmers across Britain giving up?” detailing the plight of organic farmers who are being squeezed despite the sharply higher prices paid by consumers for organic food:

Darren and Julia Quenault took their first delivery of non-organic cattle feed a few weeks ago. After nine years of organic dairy farming, they decided to convert back to conventional, and give up their organic status, at the end of last year.

The Quenaults are not alone. Even as demand for organic food remains high, the farmers producing it are falling by the wayside. … UK government figures show that while organic food sales have bounced back from the low that followed the 2008/9 financial crash, the amount of land being farmed organically in Britain continues to shrink. In 2013, the last year for which data are available, land in the process of being converted to organic fell by 24 percent, with fully organic land falling by 3.9 percent. The number of producers and processors of organic food fell for the fifth year in a row, by 6.4 percent, and the number of organic sheep, pigs and cattle also fell.

What do farmers say?

The Quenaults say the reason they switched came down to simple economics. “Cattle feed costs were excruciatingly expensive and we just couldn’t absorb them,” says Julia. “We’re saving £1,800 a month. We couldn’t have continued, we would have had to put up prices significantly, and we didn’t feel we could burden consumers with an extra 12 percent on the price of milk.”

Interviewing farmers also has turned up revealing patterns in what farmers adopt, reject or abandon organic farming. Jeff Murray, a marketing professor at the University of Arkansas, and his colleagues found that significant numbers of farmers were resisting organic farming, despite the supposed allure of premium profits. In the study, they found that ideology, especially among conventional farmers, was the primary driver to switching to or rejecting organic:

Conventional farmers saw themselves as better planners, more scientific, and embracing minimal tilling and “chemical applications” to increase yield. Meanwhile, organic farmers saw themselves as farming like their grandparents, spending more time in the field but seeing soil as an ecosystem.

Conventional farmers saw organic farmers as unscientific, and following “an organic crop guru.” Meanwhile, organic farmers perceived conventional farmers as lazy, “leaving it all up to the co-op to make decisions for them.” Aside from these perceptions, conventional farmers said they’d consider some organic practices if they paid off.

For many farmers, organic practices as a whole do not always translate to higher profits. One of the obstacles is the same thing faced by conventional farmers, including those who use genetically modified seeds: what farmers see as over regulation. A study by the University of California found that 38 percent of organic farmers listed regulatory burdens as their chief challenge. “These included paperwork and record keeping for certification, inspections, finding a third-party certifier, and the cost of certification,” the study said.

The certification process is quite involved. Under the USDA National Organic Program (NOP), any applying farm must go through a transition period of three years, during which it cannot sell any product as certified “organic.” However, the farm is supposed to be changing its practices to organic during this time. Once certified, a farmer has to pass inspections, and document that his or her farm is following all the rules governing organic farming.

Input costs are not cheap, either, sometimes exceeding those for conventional farming. Labor costs can be significantly higher for organic farming. For example, many conventional farmers grow GMO Bt crops, which require almost no insecticide spraying while organic farmers with pest problems must spray their crops regularly, which requires extra labor. Any conventional farmers growing herbicide tolerant crops have to weed far less, another labor saving innovation over organic farmers.

One organic farmer in a California study told researchers “This is all labor. I’ve had a few partners that backed out once they saw they had to spend $1,800 an acre weeding spinach compared to $150 an acre in conventional.” Meanwhile, an organic farmer in Ventura County, California, told the researchers that “when I farmed conventionally, I had six employees on 300 acres. Now that I’m farming organically, I have 15 employees on 30 acres.”

Too much woo?

Other farmers have abandoned organics because they see the movement as more like a religion than focused on agricultural science. Mike Bendzela, a former organic farmer in Maine, recently likened the philosophy of the organics movement……to a barrel raft covered in loose planks. In trying to justify their beliefs, the pile on the claims (planks), each of which rests on a different assumption (barrel). And when one claim is questioned, they simply jump to another plank on the raft and try to hold it all together.

Bendzela recounted attending a Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association fair, and encountering “Whole Life Tent,” replete with “reflexologists, naturopathic doctors, homeopaths, Reiki practitioners… I was unsure what any of this had to do with agriculture.” What they were: “a necessarily evil to get non-ag types of attend. This disorder is not limited to the fairgrounds.”

Prices don’t stay the same

One looming question is whether the organic price premium will last. According to the Washington State University report: “The actual premiums paid to organic farmers ranged from 29 to 32 percent above conventional prices. Even with organic crop yields as much as 18 percent lower than conventional, the breakeven point for organic agriculture was 5 to 7 percent.” According to the researchers, that means that organics could still be profitable even at much lower premiums.

However, if adoption of some organic practices (crop rotation and multi-cropping in particular) are adopted by conventional farmers, the “yield” gap between organics and conventional crops, already significant, grows even wider. It’s not even clear that current premiums are even covering the higher costs of organic farming (while the Washington State group notes that premiums have held steady for 40 years, organic food has only been an organized entity for less than 20). In fact, genetically engineered foods are largely responsible for the ability to yield more crops on less land, according to the USDA. With changes in supply and demand come changes in prices. At least, farmers are more than a little skeptical of the sustainability of profits, much less products.

Source: Andrew Porterfield (www.geneticliteracyproject.org).

Producción sostenible de FRUTAS nativas andinas - Sustainable production of native Andean FRUITS

Una parte esencial de la filosofía de Naturaleza y Cultura Internacional (NCI), es promover y apoyar el desarrollo de sistemas de producción y empresas sostenibles, en los diferentes ecosistemas del sur del Ecuador y norte del Perú. De esta manera, las comunidades locales pueden mantenerse y mejorar su calidad de vida, sin dañar los ecosistemas naturales, como cuando los bosques son talados para sembrar maíz o pastos para ganadería. De hecho, estas prácticas alientan a las comunidades locales a proteger y defender su medio ambiente, ya que su bienestar económico y social depende directamente de la salud del ecosistema. Un ejemplo de esto, es la producción sostenible de frutos nativos andinos, como el toronche (Vasconcellea spp), la achira (Canna spp) y la chirimoya (Annona cherimola).

Foto de http://unl.edu.ec

Toronche

Aunque más de la mitad de las 22 especies de toronche (Vasconcellea sp), de la misma familia botánica (Caricaceae) que la papaya, se pueden encontrar en el sur de Ecuador, estos frutos no se cultivaban para el mercado. En un esfuerzo para conservar los frutos nativos y mejorar la calidad de vida de los habitantes de la región, NCI ha ayudado a varias comunidades en el establecimiento de huertos agroforestales para producir toronches y en el desarrollo de una serie de subproductos con valor agregado, para aumentar los ingresos de las familias campesinas. Actualmente, la Comuna Cochecorral ha creado una pequeña empresa para producir dulces en base al toronche, tales como mermeladas y almíbar, que son comercializados en los mercados locales.

Foto de http://www.ciudadciencia.es/

Achira

La achira (Canna spp.) es un rizoma (tallo subterráneo que almacena nutrientes), cultivado durante siglos por las culturas andinas. Se utiliza tradicionalmente para la producción de Chuno, un fino almidón para consumo humano. Los alimentos típicos hechos con Chuno van desde galletas y pan hasta bebidas y sopas. NCI ha ayudado a varias comunidades rurales, en el desarrollo de sistemas de cultivo sostenibles y la modernización de la tecnología utilizada en la extracción del almidón, con el fin de obtener un producto de alta calidad.

 Autor de la foto: Hannes Grobe (es.wikipedia.org)

Chirimoya

La chirimoya es un fruto subtropical, nativo de los Andes, de sabor excelente y alto valor nutritivo, es parte importante de la dieta de muchas familias andinas. NCI junto a nueve grupos de investigación de seis países (Alemania, Austria, Bélgica, España, Bolivia, Ecuador y Perú), el Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI) y el Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIAP) ejecutó el proyecto CHERLA (Producción de Chirimoya en América Latina), con el objetivo de fomentar sistemas sostenibles de producción de chirimoya, en Bolivia, Ecuador y Perú.

El proyecto trabajó con comunidades locales, para desarrollar una serie de métodos que aumentan la producción y la calidad de este fruto nativo. Los agricultores aprendieron sobre selección y germinación de semillas, técnicas de poda para aumentar el rendimiento de los árboles, como mejorar los métodos de transporte, y sobre el uso de una malla fina que se coloca sobre cada uno de los frutos jóvenes, para protegerlos de los insectos durante el crecimiento. Con la implementación de estas prácticas, los agricultores del sur del Ecuador han visto un incremento de diez veces en el precio de venta de sus frutos, debido a una mejora significativa de la calidad del producto. 

Fuente: http://www.naturalezaycultura.org

Pakistani VEGETABLE growers are learning protected farming - Productores de HORTALIZAS paquistaníes están aprendiendo la agricultura protegida

http://static.flickr.com/32/48142991_c59f21e151.jpg

The latest tunnel technology is being introduced among progressive growers of the Punjab to grow off-season vegetables as it is impossible to grow summer vegetables without tunnels during December and January. A spokesman of the agriculture department stated that summer vegetables like cucumber, tomato, sweet chilies, green chilies, pumpkin, sponge gourd, bitter gourd, vegetable marrow, red gourd, eggplant (brinjal), watermelon, musk melon could easily and successfully be grown in low, walk-in and high tunnels.

He said that the tunnel grown vegetables were covered by green fiber sheets to protect these vegetables from severe cold and frost during December and January. He recommended the vegetable growers to get proper training for tunnel farming and start nursery cultivation of tomato, sweet chilies, green chilies, and brinjal from mid September.

Sources: dailytimes.co.pk, www.hordaily.com

Evitemos que los ARÁNDANOS se conviertan en las "bananas" del mercado - Let's prevent that BLUEBERRIES become the "bananas" of the market

http://www.vitacost.com

De manera inesperada, las bananas se convirtieron en un tema común durante el primer día de la cumbre anual de la International Blueberry Organization (IBO), evento que se está desarrollando en la ciudad de Coffs Harbour, al norte de Nueva Gales del Sur, Australia. Esto, porque el fruto tropical sirvió como una advertencia a los peligros de las trampas de los productos. “¿Cómo te gusta la fruta? Con adjetivos por favor”, preguntó a los presentes el Dr. David Hughes, profesor emérito en comercialización de alimentos en el Imperial College de Londres.

Ante 330 participantes -que de una u otra forma representan al 90% de los productores de arándanos del mundo-, Hughes advirtió a los proveedores sobre la necesidad de ser más descriptivos en la comercialización de los arándanos, aprovechando términos como “recién cosechado”, “amigable con el medio ambiente”, “premium”, “orgánico”, y muchos más. “Las personas pagarán más. Hay margen en los adjetivos. Si su única descripción ahora es ‘arándanos’, entonces se encuentra en los productos básicos, y luego pagarán el precio por ello”, indicó.

Hughes discutió sobre la idea de los “conocidos artículos de valor” (known value items -KVI), que sigue la noción de que los compradores sólo pueden almacenar cerca de 30 precios de productos en la cabeza en un momento dado. Siguiendo esta idea, es importante que la comercialización de los arándanos destaque frente a otros productos, para ganarse un espacio importante en el mercado y no llegar a ser un producto devaluado.

“Tienes que ser muy competitivo con los ‘artículos de valor’, y lo que ha ocurrido en Reino Unido es que en el 2000 las bananas tenían una cuota de valor del 22% en retail y un precio promedio de venta de £1,40 (USD 2.14)”. “15 años después, la cuota de valor se ha reducido al 11% y el precio promedio de venta de las bananas en Reino Unido es de a £0,89 (USD 1.36) por kilo en los supermercados. No pongan a los arándanos en esa posición”, destacó.

“El consumo per cápita de bananas ha subido de 13kg a 17kg. Es genial para los consumidores, pero las ventas de banana al por menor en términos de dinero no han ido a ninguna parte. La falta de variedad de productos ha contribuido a la mercantilización de las bananas”, agregó. Hughes sugirió que la industria del arándano debe ir mucho más lejos en términos de comercialización y asegurarse de que esta fruta forme parte de las ofertas alimenticias y se encuentre en paquetes de snacks. “Póngalos donde la gente está buscando los snacks, almuerzos… ponerlos en envases de tamaños respondan a sus necesidades; tendrán que pagar más por menos, y esa es nuestra oportunidad”.

También instó al sector a seguir publicando buenas noticias entorno a los arándanos, en base a conocimientos científicos sólidos, y ofrecer una oferta diferenciada a través de la idea ‘bueno, mejor, superior’. “Verás que en la mayoría de los supermercados en todo el mundo habrá un barato, regular y premium. Queremos ver ese rango en los arándanos“, dijo. A pesar de las advertencias, Hughes se mostró bastante positivo sobre el futuro de la fruta. “Los arándanos están pasando por un periodo de oro en términos de demanda, incluso en los mercados más maduros, donde aún hay espacio para el crecimiento”. “¿Por qué? Porque es intuitivo -las tendencias a largo plazo de los consumidores y los mercados globales están muy lejos de la madurez”.

Tras una charla del presidente de African Blue, Avi Weizman, quien mencionó que las frutillas se habían convertido en ‘las bananas de Marruecos’, el presidente de S.T.T Royal, José Gandia, argumentó que escoger las variedades correctas es clave para evitar un deterioro en los precios de la categoría. “Estamos viendo aparecer variedades en el mercado que tienen muy poco sabor, y uno de los principales inconvenientes que veo en el futuro es la presencia de variedades que tienen la apariencia, pero no tienen el sabor”. “El desafío es -que puede suceder en un futuro próximo- que algunas de las variedades que se están produciendo no sean tan buenas como los que hemos tenido hasta ahora, y habrá una destrucción de la apreciación del consumidor con el fruto que no tiene buen sabor, o es demasiado ácido o muy blando”.

Por su parte, la representante de la Unión de Productores y Exportadores de Fruta de Uruguay (UPEFRUY), Marta Bentancur, mencionó que para no convertirse en un mercado como el de las bananas, el país se encuentra trabajando en la diversificación. “Somos un país pequeño, con volúmenes pequeños, pero la trazabilidad, la calidad, la seguridad y el cuidado de nuestra gente y el medio ambiente son nuestros principales valores y oportunidades para crecer en el mercado internacional”, dijo. Por otro lado, Chaesup Rim de Very Berry Korea advirtió que el mercado coreano ya no consume tanto arroz como antes y que es necesario para los productores de este producto encontrar un sustituto que sea beneficioso, y el arándano puede convertirse en una buena opción.

Fuente: www.portalfruticola.com

BATATAS: Naturalmente transgénicas - SWEET POTATOES: Naturally transgenic

Foto de: http://www.todoagro.com.ar

Un grupo de científicos del Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP, por sus siglas en inglés), una de las mayores entidades de mundo dedicadas a la investigación sobre tubérculos, con sede en Lima, Perú, encontró genes provenientes de bacterias del suelo insertados en el genoma de 291 variedades de batatas cultivadas en América del Norte y Sur, Europa, Indonesia, China y África.

El hallazgo, según publicó la FAUBA, significaría que las batatas que consumimos a diario serían transgénicas desde incluso mucho antes de que la humanidad comenzara a alimentarse con esta especie. El trabajo fue publicado en la revista científica Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, de Estados Unidos. Allí se explica que los genes encontrados en las batatas fueron originados en dos bacterias del suelo (Agrobacterium tumefaciens y A. rizogenes) que, curiosamente, en la actualidad son utilizadas regularmente como vectores biológicos por los biotecnólogos para obtener plantas transgénicas en condiciones controladas.

“La evolución de las especies fue planteada por Charles Darwin como una selección natural. En ese contexto, la transgénesis siempre pareció algo contranatura y, por lo tanto, peligroso. No obstante, ahora sabemos que la evolución es mediada por procesos complejos a nivel molecular. El hallazgo de fragmentos de ADN bacterianos insertados en el genoma de algunos vegetales da cuenta de lo dinámico del proceso de intercambio de material genético entre distintos organismos”, sostuvo Raúl Lavado, profesor titular consulto de la Facultad de Agronomía de la UBA (FAUBA), al sitio de divulgación http://sobrelatierra.agro.uba.ar/

Los autores de la publicación consideran que ese ADN de origen bacteriano ayudó en el proceso de domesticación de la batata, debido a que codifica para enzimas que participan de la síntesis de hormonas vegetales. Gracias a estas hormonas, las raíces fueron seleccionadas para el consumo humano, quizás por su mayor tamaño y vigor. De acuerdo al trabajo del CIP, Lavado explicó que “cuando las poblaciones ancestrales de América comenzaron a cultivar batata habrían notado ventajas en esas raíces y seleccionaron las plantas que tenían los genes bacterianos. Desde ese momento comenzó la difusión del cultivo transgénico a través de la Polinesia y el sudeste de Asia, y después hacia el resto del mundo”.

Fernando Carrari, docente de la cátedra de Genética de la FAUBA e investigador del INTA y del Conicet, explicó a SLT que, al igual que ocurre con los transgenes, los genes encontrados en las batatas son funcionales: “Es decir que se expresan igual que cualquier otro gen de la misma planta. Además, parte de ellos fueron encontrados sólo en las batatas cultivadas y no en sus parientes silvestres”. “Estas revelaciones sugieren que, quienes consumimos batatas, venimos comiendo transgénicas naturales mucho antes de que el hombre haya obtenido la primer planta genéticamente modificada en forma artificial”, agregó Gustavo Schrauf, profesor a cargo de Genética de la FAUBA.

Por otra parte, Carrari sostuvo que “estos hallazgos no resultan extraños porque se sabe que bacterias del género Agrobacterium pueden transferir parte de su ADN a células vegetales de distintas especies de cultivos. A su vez, otros microorganismos también interactúan con las células vegetales a partir del intercambio de material genético. Por esto, sería esperable que a partir del conocimiento de los genomas completos de un gran número de seres vivos, comencemos a develar procesos y mecanismos de intercambio de ADN que hasta el momento parecen controversiales”, concluyó.

Fuente: http://www.todoagro.com.ar

Sliced PEARS could give the pear industry a significant boost - Las PERAS en rodajas podrían dar un significativo impulso al sector

Source: http://www.goodfruit.com

Sliced apples account for 10% of the U.S. apple market. A Washington State University scientist believes sliced pears could give the pear industry a similar boost if technical challenges can be resolved. If the pear market could be expanded by 10 percent, by delivering high-quality sliced pears, that would translate to a $40 million positive impact on the pear industry, says Dr. Amit Dhingra, WSU geneticist. Importantly, it would increase the demand for small fruit, in the less-preferred 120 to 135 size range.

Challenges to supplying fresh sliced pears include difficulties of transporting a soft, ripened product; lack of consistency in ripening; and a short shelf life, which increases the risk for retailers or foodservice distributors who handle the product. If unripe pears are used, the slices remain hard and dry and are unlikely to result in repeat purchases, Dhingra said. However, Crunch Pak, a major supplier of fresh-sliced apples based in Cashmere, Washington, reports that juicy pears that have reached eating quality are not amenable to slicing, either, so pears need to be sliced while firm and ripened afterwards to develop good flavor and texture.

1-MCP (1-methylcyclopropene), which blocks ethylene perception in the fruit and prevents ripening, has been used on whole pears to maintain firmness and reduce scuffing and browning, but some treated fruit never softens and ripens. “The 1-MCP treated pear looks pristine,” Dhingra said. “It’s in suspended animation. It’s never going to ripen, but it looks good.” So, Dhingra and colleagues at WSU began doing research several years ago to find ways to reverse the effect of 1-MCP so that treated pears would eventually ripen. They identified nine ripening compounds, one of which is being patented by the university. “While we were testing whole fruit, we decided to test also some sliced pears,” Dhingra explained. They found that the ripening compound was effective on both sliced and whole fruit that had been treated with 1-MCP.

Proof of concept

That led to the idea of working with Crunch Pak to develop a sliced pear product. Last year, Dhingra obtained funding from the Fresh Pear Committee for proof-of-concept research. Crunch Pak sliced the pears for the experiments and WSU did the scientific analysis. The ripening compound is water soluble and can be applied at the same time as the non-browning treatment that Crunch Pak applies after fruit are sliced. In tests, 1-MCP-treated Bartlett pears were sliced at 17 pounds pressure, treated with the ripening compound, packaged in a four-ounce bag, and stored at 42.6°F for 21 days.

1-MCP-treated d’Anjou pears sliced and treated with the a proprietary ripening compound at 1%, 2% and 3% concentration by Crunch Pak. Note the browning of the slices at 3% concentration, indicating that the 1-MCP treated sliced fruit can be ripened by the ripening compound. As Crunch Pak does not yet produce sliced pears commercially, apple bags were used for the experiments. Courtesy WSU

Dhingra said the fruit developed good flavor, juiciness, and aroma, and outlasted the two weeks of shelf life required by retailers and food-service operators. Sliced fruit treated only with 1-MCP, and not the ripening compound, remained firm and crunchy with little to no flavor throughout the 21-day period.

“The concept of the sliced pear has to be a little different from a whole pear, which is supposed to be juicy and melting, because that kind of product is impossible to deliver in the bag,” Dhingra said. “We have to think of a sliced pear as a product that retains its integrity. It’s not soft, but it gives you the flavor, aroma, and juiciness. That’s what we’ve been able to accomplish with 1-MCP and the ripening compound.”

Crunch Pak provided some of the sliced pear samples to Walmart and believes there is good potential demand for the product. Another experiment that Dhingra conducted in collaboration with WSU food scientist Dr. Carolyn Ross, showed that the ripening compound can also be used to enhance the quality of pears not treated with 1-MCP.

In the experiment, untreated d’Anjou pears were sliced at a pressure of 15 pounds and treated with the ripening compound. Consumers were asked to evaluate the slices during the Washington State Horticultural Association’s annual conference last December. Although the quality of the pears was variable before slicing, the ripening treatment enhanced the overall acceptance, flavor, and texture of the slices.

More trials

Encouraged by their results so far, WSU and Crunch Pak will do further trials in the coming season with almost $70,000 in funding from the Fresh Pear Committee. One of the goals: find out how much of the ripening compound to apply, based on the initial firmness and physiology of the pear. At high doses, the slices ripen rapidly and the edges of the slices turn slightly brown. WSU will purchase two pieces of equipment to measure ethylene and carbon dioxide levels, one of which is a hand-held device that can monitor ripening fruit in the bag without needing to break the bag open, so the same slices can be monitored over time.

Ross will conduct more tastings to assess consumer acceptance, and WSU agricultural economist Dr. Karina Gallardo will do studies to find out what consumers would be willing to pay for sliced pears and to estimate the potential increase in per-capita pear consumption. Dhingra expects the product will appeal to young people who value convenience but might not find it feasible to eat whole fruit on the go. “I think we have an opportunity now with a sliced product in pears to increase consumption.”

Fuente: Geraldine Warner (http://www.goodfruit.com)