Abstract:
FOREWORD
The third International Symposium on Pistachios and Almonds was held at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza, Spain, on May 20-24, 2001. The Symposium was organized by the Servicio de Investigación Agroalimentaria of the Diputación General de Aragón (SIA-DGA) under the auspices of the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) and the support of the International Centre for Advanced Agronomic Mediterranean Studies (CIHEAM), the Asociación Interprofesional para el Desarrollo Agrario (AIDA), the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Agroalimentaria (INIA), the Dirección General de Investigación of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO; Regional Office for Europe - REU and Regional Office for the Near East - RNE), as well as by growers' associations and local institutions.
The Symposium was attended by 135 delegates from the five continents: Oceania (Australia), America (Argentina, Chile and the United States), Africa (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), Asia (China, Iran and Turkey) and Europe (Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain). Concurrently, this Symposium was also the XII Colloquium of GREMPA (Group de Recherches et d’Études Méditerranéen pour le Pistachier et l’Amandier), which was established on the same premises in February 1974.
The opening ceremony was presided over by the Counsellor of Agriculture of the regional government of Aragón, Mr.
Gonzalo Arguilé, and was opened by the welcoming words of the convener, Dr.
R. Socias i Company, who referred to the history of almond and pistachio meetings and to the great figures of almond research in the XX century: Dr.
Dale E. Kester from California, who was unable to attend due to his advanced age, Dr.
Charles Grasselly from France, who attended the Symposium and presided over one of the sessions, and Dr.
Antonio J. Felipe from Spain, who gave the first invited lecture.
ISHS was present through the words of Dr.
Manuel Carrera, member of the Board of Directors of the Fruit Section.
The Symposium was a unique opportunity to gather the researchers on these two species and offer a place of open dialogue during the sessions as well as during the breaks and especially during the poster session on Monday afternoon, when more than 60 papers were widely discussed.
There were eight oral sessions with more than 50 papers distributed among such topics as rootstocks, economics, almond self-compatibility, breeding, nutrition, physiology, orchard management and pathology.
The business meeting stressed the need to complete the inventory of pistachio research, bibliography and germplasm, as had already been done in almond by the late Francesco Monastra.
Discussion on further meetings centred on the XIII GREMPA Colloquium, to be held probably in Mirandela (Portugal) in 2003, convened by M.M. Oliveira and A. Monteiro.
The IV ISHS Symposium will be held in Iran, probably in September 2005.
Field visits included the experimental fields of the SIA-DGA, with the collection of almond germplasm, reference for GREMPA and the Spanish genetic resources network, rootstock trials and seedling and selection evaluation plots.
Besides, an irrigated and a non-irrigated almond orchard was visited, as well as the almond processing plant of the growers' association Frutos Secos Alcañiz.
The pistachio group visited a pistachio orchard in Maials.
Both groups gathered for lunch at the magnificent castle of Alcañiz.
Social events included a visit to the medieval monastery of Rueda during the field visit, as well as a welcoming reception where old friends could gather to share the first impressions after the last meeting.
There was also a reception at the City Hall as well as a visit to the Aljafería castle, where the Coral Campus de Aula Dei offered a concert, including a traditional song with words adapted to the almond event, as well as the GREMPA anthem.
The closing banquet was the final moment to make appointments for the following meeting.
The four days of the meeting were a friendly course of excellent scientific presentations and relaxed discussions, stressing the name of colloquia for the GREMPA meetings.
Now we present this volume of Acta Horticulturae with the reviewed contributions to the symposium through the efforts of the associate editors:
I. Batlle
I. Hormaza
M.T. Espiau
and of the reviewers:
L. Ferguson
M. Sedgley
E. Facelli
S.H. Hua
M. Herrero
P. Errea
T.M. Gradziel
F. Zalom
A.J. Felipe
J. Abadía
F.J. Vargas
F. Dicenta
V. Berenguer
J. Gómez Aparisi
I. Batlle
I. Hormaza
L.M. Albisu
I can only finish by thanking the efforts of all the above-mentioned, as well as the Scientific and Organizing Committees and all the sponsors of the Symposium.
Dr.
R. Socias i Company
Symposium Convener
PREFACE
This volume of Acta Horticulturae is the Proceedings of the “ΙΙΙrd International Symposium on Pistachios and Almonds”. Invited and keynote speakers and selected authors of offered oral papers and posters had the opportunity to submit their manuscripts for publication in this volume of the series Acta Horticulturae.
Submitted manuscripts were reviewed by the Editors and members of the Editorial Board and amended according to the referee suggestions prior to acceptance.
The ISHS acknowledges the cooperation received from the Editors and Editorial Board on reviewing the manuscripts which was a significant contribution to the overall quality of the publication.
The ISHS Board of Directors
OPENING ADDRESS
It is a great pleasure to welcome all the researchers interested in almond and pistachio in Zaragoza, where the first GREMPA Colloquium met in 1974, on the same premises as today, the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of the CIHEAM. It is exciting to see how the driving force of Dr.
Jacques Souty is still alive among us, even though he passed away a few months after that meeting and could not see the second Colloquium in Nîmes and Montpellier in September 1975.
This driving force is the open collaboration among all the researchers in almond and pistachio, and we have the commitment to maintain friendship and reliance as distinctive marks of our work.
For this reason, the GREMPA meetings are defined as colloquia, in order to stress this atmosphere of open dialogue among all of us.
The first Colloquium was held on the 19 and 20 February 1974 with participants from France, Italy, Tunisia and Spain.
Besides Dr.
Souty, other significant names were present, as René Bernhard and Charles Grasselly from France, Francesco Monastra from Italy, Ahmed Jaouani from Tunisia and Antonio J. Felipe, Ramon Vidal-Barraquer and Francisco Vargas from Spain.
Other countries were also present through written communications as they were unable to travel to Zaragoza.
These countries were Bulgaria, Greece, Iran, Israel, Portugal, Romania and what was then Yugoslavia.
It is a real joy to see how some of the founders of GREMPA are still active and among us.
We have to regret the absence of one of the founders, Francesco Monastra, who was a real supporter of our activities and to whom we owe the maintenance of our warm friendship.
I personally have to sustain his name as a light in this Colloquium.
We have to regret also the absence of Efigenio García, who always showed his natural joy in our colloquia.
Two months ago we also grieved the death of Mohammed Laghezali, who organized the X GREMPA Colloquium in Meknès in 1996.
C'est un plaisir très spécial de retrouver ici notre ami Charles Grasselly, qui pendant vingt années a maintenu le feu sacré de l'amandier et de l'amitié. Je crois que si nous avions tenu ce colloque sans l'avoir invité, nous pourrions être accusés d’ingratitude.
Il a toujours apporté l'enthousiasme que cette espèce a fait naître entre nous et je lui ai demandé de continuer son apport avec le drapeau du GREMPA, l'hymne de l'amandier autocompatible et la direction de la session dédiée à ce sujet si excitant qu'est l'autocompatibilité.
Debo agradecer también la presencia del fundador, secretario inicial del GREMPA y buen amigo Antonio J. Felipe, quien después de unos años de jubilación, que no de retiro de su fecunda actividad, nos va a hablar de toda una vida dedicada a las variedades y a los patrones del almendro en la ponencia original, que seguramente va a ser una verdadera evocación del mismo entusiasmo que hemos compartido con Charles Grasselly.
I had hoped until the last moment that the third great figure of almond research, my professor Dale E. Kester, could be among us.
He has decided that at his age he did not want to subject himself to the rigor and stresses of international travel.
However, he has sent his sincerest greetings to all those attending.
I really need to quote a sentence from his letter: "I think the almond world is in very good hands for the future".
GREMPA has seen a continuous increase of activities and participation.
As a consequence, other organizations have taken advantage of all the work done throughout those years.
The second Colloquium was in Montpellier (8-11 September 1975). The third in Bari (3-7 October 1977), the fourth in Izmir (1980), the fifth in Sfax (1983), the sixth in Thessalonica (1985) and the seventh in Tarragona (1987), where it was taken over by the AGRIMED program of the European Union, as well as the following one, the eighth in Nîmes (1990).
The ninth GREMPA colloquium in Agrigento (1983) was at the same time the I International Symposium on Almonds of the International Society for Horticultural Science, showing that this type of collaboration can be opened in all directions.
Now, eight years later, this collaboration flourishes again while in the meantime separate meetings have been held.
The II International Symposium was held in Davis in 1997, while the tenth GREMPA colloquium was in Meknès in 1996 and the eleventh in Sanliurfa in 1999.
I want to thank the collaboration of the Organizing, Scientific and Editorial Committees in the organization of the meeting, as well as that of all the people of the Fruit Growing Department of the SIA-DGA. The Autonomous Government of Aragón, through the Counsellor of Agriculture and the Director General of Agricultural Technology have offered all their help.
I need to mention especially the collaboration of:
- SERVICIO DE INVESTIGACIÓN AGROALIMENTARIA DE LA DIPUTACIÓN GENERAL DE ARAGÓN (SIA-DGA)
- MEDITERRANEAN AGRONOMIC INSTITUTE OF ZARAGOZA (CIHEAM)
- INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIÓN Y TECNOLOGÍA AGRARIA Y AGROALIMENTARIA (INIA)
- DIRECCIÓN GENERAL DE INVESTIGACIÓN, MINISTERIO DE CIENCIA Y TECNOLOGÍA
- FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS (FAO)
- CAJA RURAL DE TERUEL
- FRUTOS SECOS DE ALCAÑIZ
- CORTES DE ARAGÓN
- AYUNTAMIENTO DE ZARAGOZA
- GRUPO ALM
- IBERCAJA
- CONFEDERACIÓN DE COOPERATIVAS AGRARIAS DE ESPAÑA
- AEOFRUSE
Finally I wish you all a pleasant stay in Zaragoza, as well as the best success for our work.
Sharing our experiences among all of us is how we can improve our daily commitment to almond and pistachio.
Dr.
Rafel Socias i Company
Symposium Convener
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