Abstract:
FOREWORD
In many regions, in particular in the Mediterranean basin, protected horticultural crops have to cope with increasing salinisation of irrigation water.
High salinity of the supply water has detrimental effects on soil fertility and reduces crop growth and yield.
Nevertheless, moderate salt concentration in the root zone may improve the quality of many horticultural products; in some areas, salinity is not a constraint, but has become a tool to increase economic profitability of some horticultural crops.
This Symposium aims to provide the opportunity for the exchange of scientific and technological information regarding the management of greenhouse crops in regions affected by salinity of soil and/or irrigation water.
This knowledge is essential to develop proper cropping techniques and effective marketing strategies to run sustainable greenhouse horticulture in saline environment.
The Symposium has been structured around three main topics: plant physiology, crop physiology and crop technology.
An invited speaker for each of these topics was selected by the Scientific Committee from among the world leading scientists: Prof.
R. Serrano (Spain), Dr.
L.C. Ho (United Kingdom) and Dr.
C. Stanghellini (The Netherlands). A plenary lecture by Prof.
G. Maracchi (Italy) will open the Symposium.
In the Opening Session, Prof.
N. Sigrimis (University of Athens) will introduce HORTIMED, an INCO-MED Project aimed to develop a context sensitive strategy for managing irrigation and nutrient supply of protected crops with constraints on the quantity and quality of water supply.
The Symposium and its proceedings will be one of the main results of HORTIMED.
About 100 participants from 25 countries from around the world will attend the Symposium and 77 refereed papers are contained in this volume of Acta Horticulturae.
The Symposium has been organised by University of Pisa (www.unipi.it) and by the Sant'Anna School of University Studies and Doctoral Research (www.sssup.it), in collaboration with the International Society for Horticultural Science (www.ishs.org) and the Italian Society for Horticultural Science (SOI, www.soi.it).
The Symposium will be possible thanks to the financial support provided by Regione Toscana ARSIA (Agency for Development and Innovation in agriculture and forestry - www.arsia.toscana.it) and by a few private companies.
The Convenor
Prof.
Franco Tognoni
Dip.
Biologia delle Piante Agrarie, Universitą di Pisa
PREFACE
This volume of Acta Horticulturae is the Proceedings of the International Symposium on Managing Greenhouse Crops in Saline Environment.
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 Editor and the Editorial Board and amended according to the referee suggestions prior to acceptance.
The ISHS acknowledges the cooperation received from the Editor and the Editorial Board on reviewing the manuscripts which was a significant contribution to the overall quality of the publication.
The ISHS Board of Directors
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