Agricultural Research in the Field of Fruit Growing in South Tyrol

South Tyrol (northern Italy) holds the largest contiguous apple growing area in Europe. 1.18 million tons of apples were produced on 18,538 ha in 2011, which contributes to more than half of the total harvest of Italy, while every ninth apple produced in the EU-27 originates from South Tyrol. Apple growing exploits only 7.7 % of the agriculturally-used land but contributes to 53 % of the agricultural added value in South Tyrol. The present study describes the development and advancement of fruit-tree growing research in South Tyrol in the historical context. The needs for professional support, consultancy, education and research became insistent in the 19th century, due to acute questions about cropping practices as well as the emergence of global diseases and pests (powdery mildew, downy mildew, scab, woolly aphid, apple blossom weevil, codling moth, cockchafer) requiring solutions for their control. On the 10th November 1874, the 'Agricultural Institute and Experimental Station' in S. Michele upon Etsch/Adige was inaugurated with the aim of supporting the agricultural sectors of South Tyrol and Trentino. The consequences of the First World War and the Italianization of South Tyrol, have ultimately led to a collapse of agricultural experimentation and education in this area. It took until the end of the Second World War for agricultural education and professional development in German language to be re-established, when the emerging agricultural schools temporarily assumed responsibility for experimentation in fruit-tree growing relevant to the region. With the Second Autonomy Statute of 1972, the competence to establish agricultural experimental stations was transferred to the Autonomous Province of Bozen/Bolzano. On the 1st January 1976 the Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Laimburg was founded as an institute covering all aspects of applied and basic agricultural research in South Tyrol. The development of several research areas and their milestones are emphasised in this work including cropping systems, soil maintenance and fertilization, evolvement of the pome fruit variety assortment, variety testing and breeding, establishment of the nursery system, irrigation, plant protection (comprising issues such as codling moth, spotted wing drosophila, apple proliferation, fire blight, scab, white haze or the leaf spot diseases), improvement of post-harvest technologies and practices, organic fruit growing as well as molecular biology and the development of new diagnostic methods. The Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Laimburg started with a two-man team and has since developed into an internationally recognised institution (with 20 outposts) for agricultural research in Europe with almost 200 employees working on 400 projects and activities each year. The building activities planned together with the agricultural schools and the Free University of Bozen/Bolzano will certainly contribute to develop the site 'Laimburg' into a centre of excellence not only for research but also for education and professional development, so as to cope confidently with future challenges in fruit-tree growing in this region.