Chile: Project to improve cranberry

02/02/2016

A total of 30 initiatives of the national call for "Studies and Projects of Innovation in Sustainable Agriculture" They were approved by the Council of the Foundation for Agrarian Innovation (FIA), including the San Sebastian University project, "Development of a probiotic that strengthens the production and fruit quality of the cranberry industry", led by Érica Castro, researcher at the Institute of Public Health Policies, IPSUSS.

The contest is oriented to the management of natural, productive and technological resources in a sustainable way that allows facing the changes in the behavior of the climatic variables that structurally affect the agrarian, agroalimentary and forestry sector of the country.

He chose this blueberry project that proposes the development of a probiotic based on Lactobacillus spp. isolated from pollinating insects and wild environments, whose implementation will favor the cranberry fruit industry, increasing the pollination rate, preventing diseases in plantations and fruits, ensuring a higher quality and postharvest stability of this berry.

On the FIA website, its executive director, Héctor Echeverría, indicated that the selected projects are oriented "So that they can develop and validate new productive alternatives that adapt to the changes observed in the climatic variables and their behavior over time, or that generate solutions aimed at solving problems related to the alteration of yields, quality and profitability of the systems of production due to climatic variability ".

Before this, the USS researchers realized that fungal contamination of fruits affects the cultivation, harvesting, handling, transportation and subsequent storage of the products; and although this practice is efficient in controlling pests, pollution and diseases, they have harmful effects on the product, the market, the human resource and the environment. Particularly, the ecosystem is altered affecting those species of insects that provide the service of pollination in agriculture.
Castro explains that "The development of the proposal is contemplated in the Biobío Region, and the field studies will be carried out in Monte Águila. In this way, the benefits of the use of this product will impact both the industrial sector and the small and medium-sized companies, promoting the obtaining of an environmentally friendly product, whose properties will promote an integral improvement of the industry, from the genesis of the fruit to the postharvest stage. Thus, the university-company link will also be strengthened ".

The deadline for execution of the initiatives is up to 48 months and Erica Castro explains that this project is planned for three years, since it requires a whole production cycle, "Because although the product is developed in 12 months we have to wait for pollination, try it, see the preparation of the fruits and even its storage and refrigeration".

And it is for the same reason that the USS academic highlights that the award of this initiative "It is quite an achievement for the institution, since we were the only university in the selected Biobío Region, which strengthens the work in applied sciences that San Sebastián University is developing", concludes.

Source: USS / DICYT