ISHS Acta Horticulturae 293: IX International Symposium on Apricot Culture
FOREWORD |
| Authors: | C. Noviello, S.&s. Paunovic, S. Sansavini |
| Abstract:
The international meeting on the apricot which took place in Caserta in 1989, was the occasion to make a careful evaluation of the ongoing researches in the major producing countries. At the meeting, researchers from the whole world discussed thorougly some economical, variety, biological, propagation, horticultural, pathological, processing and preservation aspects of the apricot industry. The printing of these proceedings was supported by the Campania Region; it contains all the reports and information presented at meeting. From a careful analysis emerges the fact that great attention has been payed by the experts to the different areas where this species can be grown and where it could be a valid alternative to some exceeding fruit species. From the session "Economy and commercial aspects", emerges that the apricot production is mainly concentrated in the Mediterranean Basin. This production could reach, in the year 2000, an increase of 25%, that is about 190–200 thousand metric tons. For what concerns the varieties and the breeding aspects, the researches carried out in the last thirty years were taken into consideration as well as the difficulties of obtaining improving varieties. In fact, it is impossible to distinguish the selection work for a certain characteristic from the influence of the environment in which the same selection is carried out. In the session of Biology were taken into consideration some factors which could alter floral biology and fructification. Some interesting works concerned the number of hours necessary for the passage from a phenological stage to another. In the session "Propagation and Rootstocks", the characteristics induced on the plants by the rootstocks, available at present, were also considered. The importance of rootstock breeding as a valid means in resolving important agronomical and environmental problems, was pointed out. Some other interesting reports concerned the main parasites of the apricot: insects, fungi, bacteria, virus, viroids and micoplasm. It was noticed that the spreading of a disease is often due to lack of attention by those who operate in this field, in spreading and introducing in Italy propagation material from diseased areas. The last session concerned the preservation and processing aspects of the apricot. Good preservation depends on the characteristics of the fruits at harvest.
Only if the fruits have reached a suitable degree of maturity, they can be well preserved and it will be possible to have good quality fruits on the market. Today, we hold the IXth International Symposium on Apricot Culture and Apricot Decline in Caserta, in Italy which is one of the leader Country of the fruit production in the Europe, as well as in the World. I have a great pleasure and a special honour to greet you on behalf of the International Group on Apricot Culture and Apricot Decline, and of Fruit Section of our International Society for Horticultural Science, to express our and my own great appreciation and gratitude to the Italian organizer of the IX International Symposium. Those who have sponsored this Convention and those who have laboured in its preparation: Campania Regione, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, FAO Regional Office for Europe, the I.S.H.S. and its Secretariat and Working Group, Society Orticola Italiana, various horticultural organizations in Italy, Scientific and Organizing Committee, Scientific and Organizing Secretariat, with special thanks to Professor Doctor Carmine Noviello, President of the Italian Organizing Committee, Doctor Francesco Monastra, Convener of this Symposium, Doctor Giorgio Grassi, member of Organizing Committee and host of this Symposium, Doctor Felice Pennone who organized Fruit Exhibition, as well as to the Secretaries of each Session and local arrangements. Special thanks to Propessor Doctor Silviero Sansavini for his interesting and attending at this Symposium as President of Fruit Section of the I.S.H.S. After this opening session a three-day period of intensive intelectual activity will begin for us followed by a two day excursion to establish new, or to renew old friendship. This is the most important for all of us. Since, we will need for our further mutual work friendship, understanding and co-operation. We have assembled at this Symposium so that the everincreasing of new knowledge from all parts of the world may be exchanged for the betterment of all. So far we have done a lot within apricot problems. However, we still need to undertake more intensive work, which can be promoted by furthering out interdisciplinary research collaboration and disciplinary co-operations. I should like to offer my best wishes for this Symposium and great success to the participants as well as the organizers and to contribute to the development of the International Working Group on Apricot Culture and Apricot Decline, namely our International Society for Horticultural Science. On behalf of the International Working Group, Fruit Section, I.S.H.S. allow me to open this Symposium. On behalf of the ISHS and its Fruit Section let me welcome you to the Society's 9th Symposium on "Apricot Culture and Decline"- though it could almost be called the 11th if we include the workshops held during the 22nd ISHS Congress at Davis, California, in 1986 and during the preceding one at Bucharest. I should also like to extend to you the greeting of the Italian Horticultural Society, which has made interprofessional promotion of science and technology a cornerstone of its policies by opening its doors to the kind of international cooperation of which this Symposium bears eloquent testimony. Madrid, Bucharest, Kecskemét, Davis and now Caserta - the fifth of these symposia that I have had the honour to attend. Their history mirrors the developments in apricot growing throughout the world over the last thirty years as well as reflecting the commitment of the Apricot Working Group that has been chaired for so many distinguished years by Professor S. Paunovic, one of the ISHS W.G.'s founding members (1961), of whose achievements we shall have occasion to speak at a more appropriate moment during this Symposium. Here let me simply say that we are most grateful to Professor Paunovic for his invaluable contributions to these past symposia and for his unstinting efforts in promoting international scientific cooperation, especially in the East-West endeavours that have always found a fertile, common ground in apricot. Sharing the credit in these undertakings is the Apricot Working Group, which has always operated in the spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration by teaming side by side agronomists, pomologists, pathologists, geneticists, physiologists and extension service personnel. It was certainly no accident that the Group was initially established to research decline and apoplexy which were then, unlike today when the chief menace is the plum pox virus (sharka), the main diseases threatening the crop. Let me also mention here the European Commission which, under the leadership of Dr. G. Morvan and Dr. Z. Klement, has thoroughly investigated several controversial issues in apricot pathology. This marks the first time that Italy has hosted the Apricot Symposium. Our thanks are to be extended to the Organising Committee for their efforts, to the Campania Regional Authorities, to Dr. F. Monastra of the ISF (Experimental Fruit Institute) in Rome as the convener and guiding 'spirit' (for the will to succeed depends on the spirit), to Dr. G. Grassi, the director of the Caserta ISF Section, to Dr. F. Pennone who handled the fine pomology exposition, and to all the public agencies and private concerns for their support and cooperation. Their timely efforts have combined to provide a worthy forum for an overall view of the advances in modern apricot growing - an invaluable cultural and technical contribution that also highlights the continuities and contrasts to past developments. Campania is the cradle of Italy's apricot industry and one of the Mediterranean's leading producer regions. Here the species has enjoyed not only its greatest expansion but has also found a congenial habitat for the development of its best cultivars - inimitable in appearance, aroma and taste - resulting from the strict interdependence between the environment and the 'spirit', skill and experience of their growers. The message we should strive to elicit from this forum is one of confidence in the future of the apricot, that the insights and research progress we are here to discuss herald real advances in science and benefits to growers.
It is with this in mind that I extend my best wishes for a successful symposium. | |
