La FRUTICULTURA tropical con buenas perspectivas en Argentina - Tropical FRUIT production with good prospects in Argentina

Foto: http://noticias.iruya.com/

El referente de la Asociación de Productores de Frutas y Hortalizas de la provincia argentina de Salta, José Luis Checa, consideró que la fruticultura tropical se presenta como una actividad muy prometedora para la economía regional. "En el noroeste argentino (NOA) contamos con 3.500 hectáreas de banano, 350 de mango, 200 de palta (aguacate), 70 de papaya y 25 de maracuyá, todos cultivos en expansión realizados a pulmón por los casi 200 productores de la zona", sintetizó.

Además señaló que hay un conglomerado (cluster) de frutas tropicales en el que se involucran distintos sectores de la sociedad y que colaboran con el desarrollo.

También destacó el respaldo del Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, INTA Yuto, como principal impulsor de los cultivos tropicales, mediante el asesoramiento, proveedor de plantas a través de su cooperadora, y artífice de varios planes de promoción de mango, papaya y palta, entre otros.

"Resulta de importancia la colaboración de consorcios de riego, asociaciones de productores y del Programa de Servicios Agrícolas Provinciales (PROSAP)", dijo Checa. Explicó que "las frutas tropicales son generadoras de mucho empleo en la zona, ya que las operaciones que demandan las plantaciones se realizan artesanalmente, con la particularidad de que el obrero rural tiene trabajo y vivienda todo el año en el mismo establecimiento".

"Así se torna una herramienta importantísima para el desarrollo de las economías regionales", precisó al señalar que "otra gran ventaja de estos cultivos es la sustitución de importaciones". Es un "dato que se presenta como una alternativa sólida para evitar fuga de divisas, debido a que el mercado interno existe para este tipo de productos: sólo tenemos que hacerlo nuestro". Lo más sobresaliente que resaltó "son las cualidades de la fruta que se producen en nuestro subtrópico: en cuanto a sabor, no nos gana nadie", se animó a decir Checa.

"La fruta que producimos tiene mayor concentración de sólidos solubles. Con respecto a la sanidad, tenemos zonas libres de las principales plagas y enfermedades de las regiones con las que competimos", expresó. Ejemplificó que en bananas no realizan ninguna pulverización aérea de fungicidas, mientras en el trópico hacen 40 aplicaciones anuales. "Esto requiere que, tanto el sector público como el privado, cuidemos este estatus sanitario, que brinda ventajas comparativas a nuestra zona", añadió. Pidió que se valore "la gran importancia que actualmente tienen y, fundamentalmente, tendrán los frutos tropicales para las economías regionales del NOA y NEA".

Fuente: http://noticias.terra.com.ar/

Beneficios del rescate de especies de FRUTAS ancestrales - The rescue of ancient FRUIT species benefits

Pomarrosa (https://upload.wikimedia.org)

Cuando Abraham Chavarría habla del arazá, aprieta los labios. No puede ocultar el agrado que tiene ante esta fruta, muy parecida al durazno y que usado en un jugo tiene una textura similar al yogur. “Es riquísima”, dice sin pensarlo.

Aunque esta fruta no es comercializada en la misma escala que la naranja, mandarina, coco y otros frutos de la Costa, Chavarría la conoce a la perfección, porque es una de las especies que se encuentra sembrada en el lugar donde labora hace 16 años: en la Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (Espol) de Guayaquil. En 2011 la institución destinó 5 hectáreas al proyecto ‘Bosque de los sueños’, que mediante un convenio con una empresa logró la siembra de 3.000 árboles frutales en peligro de extinción.

Entre las 20 especies sembradas además del arazá (o guayaba amazónica), consta el caimito (o cauge), pomarrosa, marañón (o castañas de cajú), mamey, carambola, guayaba, chirimoya, mango, grosella, caña fístula y jackfruit. Esta última tiene una piel rugosa llena de pequeñas protuberancias. Cuando está madura, se vuelve de color marrón y por dentro es como una chirimoya gigante. Puede llegar a medir 90 centímetros y pesar entre 30 y 50 kilos. Es originaria de la India y en Ecuador es común observarla en la Amazonía, pero también puede ser sembrada en la Costa.

Para Leonor Bravo, de 25 años, la mayoría de las frutas mencionadas son desconocidas. Cuando se trata de pensar en un fruto costeño, lo primero que pronuncia es el mango. "Algo he escuchado del caimito y obviamente he probado la guayaba, la grosella, el mango y la chirimoya, pero las otras frutas las escucho por primera vez. Me intriga saber cómo son y poder probarlas".

Chavarría, quien está a cargo de la limpieza y el mantenimiento de las plantas del ‘Bosque de los sueños’, revela que hay frutas como el caimito, cuya producción se obtiene luego de 8 años, pero en ese terreno destinado para la conservación la primera cosecha apareció en 2015, tras 4 años de su plantación. Señala que el riego de agua, pasando 2 días, ha sido el ‘secreto’ para el pronto resultado y buen estado de todas las especies frutales y vegetales que hay en la zona.

Para la irrigación del área utilizan el agua conservada en tanques de 10.000 metros cúbicos, que se abastece permanentemente del lago de la Espol. Chavarría, de 59 años, conoce muy bien las técnicas en la agricultura. Expresa que en su natal Manabí, las familias se dedican al cultivo de naranjas, café y yuca por las condiciones climáticas que favorecen a estas plantas. “Si pudieran, sembrarían alguna de las frutas que hay acá, pero no resulta porque no hay lluvia o agua como sí hay aquí”.

En eso coincide Vicente Reyes, de 66 años, quien es el encargado del personal de bosque protector de la Espol y también tiene experiencia agrícola desde la infancia. “Todas las frutas que tenemos son riquísimas y hay muchas personas que no saben lo que se pierden porque no se comercializan como otros frutos”.

Mireya Pozo, experta en manejo de recursos naturales, expresa que los problemas de la agricultura son muy complejos, pero el real problema de los árboles frutales es el desconocimiento de la gente. “Hay un dicho: el que no conoce, no valora; y el que no valora, no defiende. Hay una falta de difusión de estas plantas y por ende las personas no conocen nuestra biodiversidad”, indica Pozo.

Además, menciona que a partir de esta problemática se está perdiendo la genética de las especies porque las semillas no son recogidas ni replantadas. Según la especialista, la solución está orientada a la ejecución de campañas para que la comunidad pueda conocer sobre estas especies, en cuanto a la importancia personal y del medio ambiente.

La especialista considera que una buena alternativa es la plantación de árboles frutales en los patios de las casas y señala 3 motivos. El primero es la fijación de carbono y liberación de oxígeno, es decir, ayuda al cambio climático. El segundo es que habría fruta orgánica para la familia, y el tercero apunta a la contribución de la vida silvestre.

“Si nosotros tenemos patios llenos de árboles frutales, en un momento dado la gran ciudad se va a convertir en un corredor de flujo de especies entre área protegida y bosque protector, a través de los patios. Por ejemplo, las aves tendrían comida y lugares para hacer sus nidos, es decir, el beneficio no es solo para los humanos, sino también para la vida silvestre”.

Fuente: http://www.telegrafo.com.ec

Semblance of Ethiopian HORTICULTURAL sector, its great potential and opportunities - Semblanza del sector HORTÍCOLA etíope, su gran potencial y oportunidades

Photo source: https://www.kissfromtheworld.com

Ethiopia has strong potential and competitive edge in agriculture in general and horticulture in particular. The country has 12 major river basins with an annual runoff volume of 122 billion meter cubic of water and an estimated 2,6 – 6,5 billion meter cubic of ground water potential. It is often referred as the water tower of Africa. It has 4 million hectare irrigable land. The horticulture sector has shown rapid growth over the last five years, with cumulative growth of 22%. According to data from Central Statistical Authority (CSA) of Ethiopia fresh fruits and vegetables production in 2013 was estimated to be over 5 million MT.

The Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) of Ethiopia estimated that annual domestic market of horticultural products around US $ 900 Million. Smallholder farmers are the principal suppliers of fruits and vegetables, but the commercial horticultural production focusing on high value products is increasing fast. Fruits and vegetables production in the smallholders sector is mainly rain fed, while most commercial farmers use irrigation. According to a report by Ministry of Agriculture (2009), a total of close 0,8 million hectares land (including out grower schemes) has been identified for commercial investment in horticulture of which less than 10% is developed.

Fruits and vegetables are strategic export commodities for Ethiopia. Over the last five years the country earned a total of US $ 170 million. Important export markets for fruits and vegetables are the surrounding countries as Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan. The main products to these countries were non-graded fresh fruit and vegetables such as onion, tomato, potato, banana, mango and avocado. High value graded prepacked vegetables and fresh herbs account for only 11% of the total export. Most of these products are exported to the United Kingdom (UK), United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Netherlands. During the last five years Ethiopia imported a total of over 148.000 MT processed horticultural products; import has shown a cumulative average growth of 33%. Tomato juice (35%), mixed juice (18%) and pineapple juice (18%) are the top three imported juices to Ethiopia.

The Oromia Regional State produced 42% of the total national horticultural products in 2013. The diverse agroecology, large surface and ground water potential and highly fertile land makes Oromia suitable for almost any type of fruit and vegetable products. Currently, the leading vegetable products in the region are onion, potato, tomato, cabbage and garlic. However production of high valued vegetables such as lettuce, eggplant, cherries, strawberry, fresh beans and peas is increasing with an increasing investment by international and domestic companies. The fruits produced in the region include citrus, grapes, mango, papaya, banana, guava and avocado. Apple is a recent introduction in the highlands of North Shewa. 

Oromia region horticulture matrix (Source: http://www.rvo.nl)

Source: Netherlands Enterprise Agency (http://www.rvo.nl/file/investmentguideoromiapdf)

Cambio del clima superpone los calendarios de cosecha de MANGO de diferentes regiones - Climate change overlaps MANGO harvest calendars from different regions

Pérdidas por alrededor del 25% de la producción de MANGO experimentó Michoacán (México) en la reciente temporada del fruto, debido a condiciones climatológicas que desencadenaron la maduración simultánea de huertos en diversos puntos del país, lo que, a su vez, contribuyó a la saturación del mercado norteamericano y al desplome de los precios, refirió Xavier Chávez Contreras, presidente del Sistema Producto Mango. De acuerdo con Chávez Contreras, EEUU y Canadá declinaron la recepción de mango previo a la conclusión de la temporada, al registrar saturación de sus mercados, lo que produjo una reducción promedio de 100 millones de pesos en la meta de exportación, en detrimento del 30% de los 4.200 productores de la fruta, así como reducción en los precios nacionales, de $ 3.50 a 2,50 por kilogramo, un 28,57%, e internacionales, de U$S 5 por caja de 4 Kg a U$S 1,50, un 70% inferior. “Tuvimos pérdidas por alrededor del 25% del total de la producción, porque la fruta se nos maduró y ya no se pudo exportar. Los mercados de EEUU y Canadá estaban saturados, al grado que ya no quisieron recibir más fruta, porque el clima favoreció que todos los estados que producen mango saliéramos al mismo tiempo, lo que derivó en sobreoferta que nos pegó a todos”. Destacó que EEUU tiene capacidad para absorber cada temporada 2,5 millones de cajas de 4 Kg de mango, en tanto que este año tuvo oferta por 3,5 millones de cajas, y agregó que la expectativa es recuperar el sector en febrero de 2016, siempre que las condiciones climáticas permitan una floración diferenciada en los estados productores. En 2015, se logró la exportación de 100.000 t de mango cosechadas en 20.500 ha, concentradas en la zona de Apatzingán. 
Fuente: Fátima Paz (http://www.cambiodemichoacan.com.mx)

Combating FRESH AGRIFOOD waste in sub-Saharan Africa - Combatiendo el desperdicio de AGROALIMENTOS FRESCOS en África subsahariana

"Though the mangos have come directly from the farms where they were grown, many of them are bruised. The damage is almost all a result of how the fruit was transported: packed as tightly as possible into thin bags and crammed into trucks that offer no padding as they race over Tanzania's bumpy rural roads"

Photo: africaunchained.blogspot.com

At the bustling Kilombero wholesale produce market in the town of Arusha, Tanzania, traders sort hundreds of pounds of mangos that have just been unloaded from trucks. Traders separate the mangos they'll have to discard or, if they're lucky, sell at a discount to buyers who may be able to turn them into juice. A sprawling, three-foot-high mound of rejected mangos grows by the minute. Brown and black spots speckle the fruits' green skin, orange flesh oozing out through cracks. 

Like much of sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzania produces all kinds of food for local consumption as well as export. Yet here, in the part of the world that can arguably least afford to waste food, a good portion of these crops are lost. Much of the loss happens before the food can be eaten, during the so-called "post-harvest" phase between harvest and the point of sale or consumption. The problem is that the equipment and methods that many small-scale farmers use to process and store their crops are inadequate, so months after the harvest, tons of corn might be infested with insects or contaminated with toxic mold. More perishable crops like fruits and vegetables may become inedible in a matter of days. Long a neglected aspect of the agricultural system in developing countries, this waste stream of food is starting to attract attention from global agriculture organizations and financial institutions, offering hope that the losses can be reduced, and with them rates of rural hunger and malnutrition. 

Food waste in Africa and other developing nations is an entirely different problem than it is in developed regions. In developing regions, often the biggest chunk of food loss — more than 40 percent — occurs during the post-harvest phase, according to a 2011 U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report. But in developed regions, the biggest chunk — again more than 40 percent — occurs at the retail and consumer levels. 

Across sub-Saharan Africa, more than a third of fruits, vegetables, roots, and tubers are lost by the time they are processed or packaged, according to the FAO report, the most recent comprehensive estimate available. More precise estimates vary from year to year and from country to country. In Kenya, pests destroy up to 30 percent of all maize harvested — a total loss of about 162 million tons, according to the government-run Kenya Agricultural Research Institute. Ghana, meanwhile, loses up to 50 % of its main crops of vegetables, fruits, cereals, roots, and tubers, said Joe Oteng-Adjei, the country's Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, according to the news service GhanaWeb. 

The food waste problem has been neglected for so long that there's no long-term data to show whether these figures have changed over time. In fact, the FAO and other organizations have acknowledged that even existing estimates are not particularly reliable, because the measurement methods are haphazard at best. What's clear is that food in sub-Saharan Africa is being wasted on a large scale, and any progress in reducing that waste should benefit the region — and even the global food supply — significantly. A World Bank report, also issued in 2011, stated that even a 1 percent reduction in post-harvest losses could lead to annual economic gains of $40 million, much of it going directly to farmers. 

The waste is an economic loss, but it is also a loss of precious nutrition and calories. The World Bank report estimated that the value of annual losses, $4 billion, exceeds the total value of food aid sent to sub-Saharan Africa in the decade up to 2008. Even as international efforts to reduce hunger in the region have increased, most of the dollars spent have focused on boosting crop yields, despite the lack of means for storing extra crops. "More production is not going to be able to fill that gap that we're worried about to feed the world in the future. What we have to do is reduce losses," said Lisa Kitinoja, founder of the Oregon-based, nonprofit Postharvest Education Foundation. 

That is slowly starting to happen. The release of the two 2011 reports by international institutions as influential as the World Bank and FAO served as an indication of the growing interest in solving this problem — and also as a rallying cry that motivated other organizations to get involved. Agriculture research organizations across Africa, including several members of the respected global research consortium CGIAR, have started focusing on ways to reduce crop losses. The Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the New York-based Rockefeller Foundation have funded initiatives to study and reduce food waste in developing countries, as have organizations in Europe and elsewhere. 

Just outside Arusha, a women's group is learning to make and can a variety of jams that they can sell in nearby markets: mango and guava, but also more experimental flavors like banana-ginger and even an onion marmalade. It's a sharp learning curve for them. To be able to sell commercially, they have to learn about health and sanitation (for a food-safety certification) in addition to perfecting their jam recipes. On a recent Saturday afternoon, a batch of the banana-ginger jam stewed on a freestanding gas burner in a nondescript church-owned building. The women boiled and sterilized jars as black clouds of bees swarmed the room. Lesson learned: close the windows before making banana jam. 

Ultimately, the women hope to preserve more of their crops to eat throughout the year, and earn a bit of income in the process. The training they received from a local post-harvest consultant is just the kind of thing a growing number of organizations working with rural communities to reduce food waste intends to do. The Postharvest Education Foundation, for example, works with farmers and other agricultural workers around the world to identify projects that can help them make a better living by preserving more of their crops. 

Because people are accustomed to losing so much of their harvest, they often need some kind of inspiration, or motivation, before they even consider trying to reduce waste. For example, the group making jam had seen that another group of women making jam across town was able to sell to the local upscale supermarket. The potential for such a lucrative market made them eager to try it for themselves. "Farmers harvest and they don't store. They want to market and sell and get cash straight away," said Ngoni Nenguwo, post-harvest specialist at the Arusha office of the World Vegetable Center, or AVRDC, an international agricultural-research nonprofit that trained the jam-making women. "It just never seemed an option to preserve better. Waste is just a part of agriculture."  

Faraji Msechu, who farms a small plot a few hours to the south of Arusha, said he never thought about trying to reduce the amount of corn he lost to poor storage. That changed when an organization reached out to him to participate in research on storage gear that could improve upon the polypropylene bags he and most other farmers stored their corn in. "I never had that thinking. I just used the polypropylene bags to store maize, and it was business as usual," he said. As important as the need to transform old habits is the need to improve the storage and processing equipment available in sub-Saharan Africa. There is a quickly-growing array of tools, from forced-air cooling rooms to solar dryers, that can help farmers and processors preserve their harvest in the absence of the grain elevators, refrigerators, and freezers that developed countries rely on so heavily. 

AVRDC has a department devoted to post-harvest research and operates a training center in Arusha to demonstrate equipment for local farmers. One promising example on offer is plastic crates for transportation. AVRDC research has shown that switching from wood-slat to plastic crates can reduce the percentage of tomatoes lost during transport from 53 to 22. Because the plastic crates are smoother and have more even walls, the tomatoes inside don't get scratched, squeezed, or smashed as easily as they do in the wooden ones. Even so, the crates are a tough sell. They are much more expensive than the wooden crates, so they must be shipped back to the farmer for reuse, whereas the wooden crates are used once then broken down for, say, firewood at the end of the journey. 

Compatible Technology International, a Minnesota-based nonprofit, has designed and tested several products to reduce crop losses in various African countries in recent years. The organization recently introduced equipment for processing millet in Senegal that it says captures more than 90 percent of the grain — up from roughly half using traditional methods — while also nearly eliminating contaminants like dirt and debris. But equipment alone isn't the solution, said executive director Alexandra Spieldoch. Also essential is leadership and financial training to help farmers adopt the equipment —something the organization tries to achieve through partnerships with local groups and government agencies. 

Other researchers in Tanzania, Kenya, and a few other countries are studying the potential of plant materials to serve as pesticides during crop storage. If they prove successful, the plant materials may save farmers money while also eliminating the need for potentially harmful synthetic chemicals. 
Efforts like these are all so new that it remains unclear which are likely to be the most effective or easily adopted. What is clear is that in countries like Tanzania, where malnutrition and hunger are as persistent as ever, every ounce of wasted food could have provided beneficial calories for someone. 

In February, during a training course in Arusha for agriculture workers learning to teach farmers better crop storage and processing methods, Kitinoja focused part of a morning on emerging opportunities for post-harvest work. There is a lot of potential throughout sub-Saharan Africa right now, not only for reducing the amount of food that gets wasted, but also for people to make careers out of doing so, she said. "I've been working on this for 30 years," she said. "Three years ago, I couldn't have made this presentation. No one was talking about postharvest." 

Source:Rachel Cernansky (http://news.mongabay.com)

ARÁNDANO, ANANÁ, BANANA, KIWI, MANGO y PALTA (AGUACATE): cultivos no tradicionales en expansión en Argentina - BLUEBERRY, PINEAPPLE, BANANA, KIWI, MANGO and AVOCADO: expanding non-traditional crops in Argentina

La región noroeste de Argentina (NOA) lidera la producción nacional de frutas tropicales y tiene la mayor superficie cultivada de frutas finas (berries). Por su impacto en las economías regionales, el Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) junto a otros organismos nacionales y gobiernos provinciales, fomenta estos cultivos no tradicionales. 

Descargar: http://intainforma.inta.gov.ar/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/153_FRUTAS.pdf

Plum mango (plango) in UK stores - El "mango ciruela" en tiendas de UK

Bouea macrophylla is commonly known in English as the "marian plum", "gandaria", and "plum mango".  The fruit has a bright orange edible skin, which is firmer than that of a plum, and a sweet taste similar to that of an Alphonso mango but with a softer texture.

Photo source: http://previews.123rf.com

The tree belongs to the family Anacardiaceae, and is related to the mango. The tree is native to Malaysia, West Java, Burma and North Sumatra. It is also found in Thailand, Laos, Indonesia, and Malaysia, where it is commercially grown. M&S fruit expert Shazad Rehman said: "We're really excited to be introducing the first mango plum to the UK. "We know our customers like to try new and interesting fruit and we're sure this will be something they will really enjoy. "It has a soft texture and all the delicious flavour of a mango without any of the hassle to prepare as you can eat the skin." The fruit is much smaller than a traditional mango and grows to two inches in diameter and four inches in length.

Sources: http://www.dailymail.co.uk, http://en.wikipedia.org

MANGO: La caída de la producción en Sudamérica y el mayor consumo en Europa aumentarían el precio de la fruta

 
 

The fall in production in South America and higher demand in Europe would increase fruit price

Click here: Perú: La exportación de mango podría caer un 50%


 Fuente: http://www.freshplaza.es