POSITION PAPER ON THE MOST IMPORTANT FRUIT CROPS

IN THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN (MB)

Stakeholders’ opinion
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Freeclimb project summary

The FREECLIMB project is built to match topic 1.2.1 of the PRIMA (Sect. 2) framework in developing smart

and sustainable farming systems in Mediterranean countries, to preserve natural resources (water and land
use) by increasing production efficiency. This will be pursued by advancing knowledge on mechanisms of
plant environmental adaptation and biotic/abiotic stress resilience. The project targets major fruit tree
species with the aim of improving the availability of breeding and germplasm material adapted to limited
external resources (input) and future climatic scenarios predicted for the Mediterranean area, through the
characterization and exploitation of local biodiversity. The project will focus on key ideotypes elaborated in
collaboration with Fruit Farming Actors (FFAs, breeders, nurseries, growers) with the core objective of
providing a toolkit (diverse germplasm, tools and methods) to accelerate exploitation, breeding and
selection of resilient varieties in key traditional fruit crops of Mediterranean agriculture: stone fruits such
as peach, apricot and almond trees; Citrus spp. such as orange, lemon, mandarin trees; olive trees, and
grape).

Please use one questionnaire for each crop/ Veuillez utiliser un questionnaire pour chaque culture

Your opinion is kindly requested on the following aspects:

1. Which fruit tree crops do you handle? Quelles cultures d'arbres fruitiers traitez-vous ?
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2. For each fruit tree crop that you handle what are the major needs in plant varieties? Pour chaque
culture d'arbres fruitiers que vous traitez, quels sont les principaux besoins en matière de
variétés végétales ?
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3. Would you suggest exploitation of existing varieties or breeding for new genotypes? Suggérez-
vous l'exploitation des variétés existantes ou la sélection de nouveaux génotypes ?
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4. Which are the major stresses in each crop that you handle? Please fill in the table below. Quels
sont les principaux stress pour chaque culture dont vous vous occupez ? Veuillez remplir le
tableau ci-dessous.

Stress Rate risk (1 is the lowest and 10 is the Comments and specific suggestions
highest risk)
water deficit
water excess
salinity
high temperature
low temperature
Pest 1 (please name it)
Pest 2 (please name it)
Add lines if necessary
Disease 1 (please
name it)
Disease 2 (please
name it)
Add lines if necessary

5. Would you be willing to participate in/promote/facilitate the evaluation of plant varieties for
suitability in different environments? Seriez-vous prêt à participer à/promouvoir/faciliter
l'évaluation de variétés végétales pour leur adéquation à différents environnements ?
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 Your feedback will be presented in an article about the Mediterranean fruit crops. See below some basic
information about it.

The paper is structured in seven chapters:

INTRODUCTION
1-ALMOND (and PEACHxALMOND hybrids)
2-APRICOT
3-CITRUS
4-GRAPE
5-OLIVE
6-PEACH
CONCLUSIONS

The overall aims of the book, other than giving an overview of the main fruit crops grown in the
Mediterranean basin is: i) describe the most interesting features of their cultivation (state of the art), ii)
enlight the possible solutions in order to tackle the negative impacts of the climatic extremes on the
industry.

Chapters outline

1.Crop importance in the Mediterranean Basin (MB): production trends by country in the last 5 years
(FAOSTAT)

2.Outline of the crop evolution until today: cultivars and orchard management

3.Biotic and abiotic challanges

4.‘Freeclimb’ contribution (it will be summarized from the project outcomes/WPs)

5.Stakeholders contribution