Potential for future crops could be predictable thanks to Chilean project
The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) revealed the winners of its prize Innovagro 2018, a prize that recognizes initiatives to improve productivity and sustainability in the agricultural sector among 36 institutions in 12 countries.
The award, which was based in Mexico City, highlighted the Chilean project named "Adaptation model to climate change through the zoning of productive aptitude of horticultural species prioritized in the Biobío Region", in the category "Institutional innovation "
This initiative was developed by specialists from the Information Center of Natural Resources (Ciren) in collaboration with the Agricultural Research Institute of Quilamapu, in addition to the Center for Agriculture and the Environment (Agrimed)
Carolina Leiva, Ciren project specialist, stressed that the award-winning proposal will serve as a compass in the decision-making of entrepreneurs and producers who want to produce a certain item, so they know their technical feasibility and harvest behavior based on future climatic scenarios.
"The project consisted in zoning the productive aptitude of the vegetables, fruits and berries that are of interest for the Biobío Region, in the context of current scenarios and regional climate change," said Leiva, quoted by the Fruit Portal.
He explained that the feasibility of the model was proven thanks to the zoning of 17 horticultural species, which were used to obtain territorially differentiated information about their current situation and how they could behave in new expected conditions.
"The important thing is to provide technical assistance to these investors, who usually face unsuspected climatic difficulties, and that this eventually has a negative impact on their investments and the conversion of them," Leiva added.
Although the project was done in a lying area, Leiva stressed that it can be replicated in any other agricultural area with a certain history of climate damage to its credit.
He also mentioned that the plantations of blueberries, raspberries, apples and other fruits, whose harvest are typical of that Chilean region, were used for the sample. and that also have a high production impact in the country.
Climatic expectation
For Carolina Leiva, Chile's future climate, or at least within 32 years, will be of increased average temperatures, which will also have an impact on rainfall, which is estimated to be below the current average. "This situation will generate changes in the patterns of availability of water and thermal resources," said the specialist and member of Ciren.
ARTÍCULOS RELACIONADOS
