Sustainable production of tomato, artichoke and peach. SUSTAINFOOD
Investigador principal:
Entitats finançadores:
Horticultural production in Catalonia occupies 9,505 hectares with a production of 226,187 tons of product and fruit production without citrus 97,395 ha with a production of 749,896 tons of product representing 1.1% and 11.4% of the agricultural area20 ). Specifically, tomato cultivation occupies 1,029 ha, in greenhouses 158 ha and outdoors 827 ha in irrigated and 44 ha in rainfed, artichoke 892 ha and peach 10,541 ha (Agricultural Statistics MAPAMA 2020).
Most of the fruit and vegetable production is being carried out in vulnerable areas where nitrate contents in water tables are very high. Crops are mostly irrigated and therefore water and fertilizer requirements are very high. In a future scenario of lower water availability and a greater awareness of society of the problems derived from the high use of mineral fertilizers and phytosanitary products, it is necessary to implement a Sustainable Agricultural Production. In this sense, there are several entities, such as the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda of the Generalitat de Catalunya, which are working to implement Sustainable Agricultural Production (SAP), a system that will allow a rational use of resources, improve the state of resources and look after people.
The organization of this new production system includes the assessment of various activities that can have an effect on the carbon footprint, water footprint, soil conservation and biodiversity, and to evaluate each of these impacts on a farm, many aspects will have to be taken into account, all of which will be detailed in the future regulations.
Currently, sustainability assessment at farm level in Catalonia is not very well implemented. This project will serve as a pilot test to fine-tune the certification system that has been launched by the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, the Sustainable Agricultural Production (SAP) at the level of fruit and vegetable farms.
Determining the sustainability of farms and improving it through cultural practices will allow the producer to value his production and the final consumer to have the information that will help him when choosing what to buy. With this improvement in processes and services, the growing demand of a large part of society in terms of knowledge of the sustainability of what they consume should be partly solved.
The main objective of this project is to determine the degree of sustainability of artichoke, tomato and peach farms and to establish lines of improvement of cultural practices to reduce environmental impacts.
The specific objectives are:
1) To know what are the data collected by the farms.
2) Adaptation of the field notebooks to the needs of the PAS.
3) Propose and implement improvements.
4) Evaluate these improvements.