STRATEGIES FOR POMOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN SUBTROPICAL COUNTRIES. THE ROLE OF EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

Agricultural commodities including fruits are important products of subtropical and tropical countries. Especially those countries with dry summer climates have important advantages for fruit production. In fact, the most important fruit producing and exporting countries have dry summers (the Mediterranean basin, California, Chile, South Africa and Southern Australia). Increasing awareness to this agricultural potential has caused a substantial increase in production in countries like Morocco, Spain, Algeria, Turkey and Egypt. This production is aimed at both the domestic and export markets. With the rise in the standard of living, an increase in consumption of fruits is evident. As an example, Egypt is currently producing 0.5 million tons of Anna apples, a development that took place in the last 15 years.

Export of subtropical and tropical fruits to the northern countries is on the increase. The advantages of the subtropical countries in genera, vis-a-vis western countries is the availability of cheap labour, relatively non-expensive land and available capital for investment. The most lacking production element is horticultural know how.

Israel is definitely an exception as it represents a country with a strong investment in agricultural education training extension and research. Israel has taken an active part in encouraging knowledge dissemination in special courses and has a syllabus prepared for developing countries. From the experience gathered in such activity it may be concluded that the education in agriculture in general and in pomology as well is of utmost importance to the development of fruit production in developing subtropical countries.

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