Action Plan for Mountain Agriculture and Food Sciences

Facts & Figures

  • 14employees have been recruited at the Laimburg Research Centre thanks to the action plan.
  • 56projects have been implemented at the Laimburg Research Centre: 9 of them have been completed, 47 are ongoing.
  • 72experimental fields throughout South Tyrol are managed by the research area Mountain Agriculture in 37 projects.

 

Action Plan for Mountain Agriculture and Food Sciences

The "Action Plan for Mountain Agriculture and Food Sciences" adopted by the Government of South Tyrol in September 2015 was launched in 2016, and will continue until 2022. The aim of the action plan is to scientifically accompany the wide range of products of South Tyrolean mountain agriculture not only during their production and thus make them more competitive, but also during their processing into typical high-quality South Tyrolean products. In the area of Mountain Agriculture, work focuses on meat, milk, berries and stone fruit, and vegetables, as well as on grains and herbs. In the Foods area, activities concentrate on bacon, sausage, jams, juices, distillates, flour, baked goods, and beer. The Laimburg Research Centre and the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano have been commissioned to implement the project, and their activities are flanked by other institutions working for South Tyrolean agriculture. Thanks to the "Action Plan for Mountain Agriculture and Food Sciences," it was possible to fill an additional 15 scientific positions at the Laimburg Research Centre, in the research areas "Mountain Agriculture," "Food Technology," and "Fruit Growing". The strengthening of these research areas made it possible to both expand existing projects and activities and also initiate new projects:

Projects

[This section is under construction. Please refer to the German or Italian version of this website to find a selection of projects]

Berries and Stonefruit

For various supplementary crops such as elderberries, hazelnuts, or walnuts, the Berries and Stonefruit working group constructed a pilot and demonstration installation in order to provide useful information on the various cultivation issues such as variety selection, training systems, and care. The chestnut – a tree rich in tradition – and problems associated with its cultivation (infestation by the Chestnet Tortrix, Septoria Leaf Spot, and the fungus Gnomoniopsis) are now being investigated experimentally. Thanks to the new resources, new niche and/or supplementary crops (the hazelnut, mini-kiwis, the blue honeysuckle, the sea buckthorn, the amelanchier, etc.) can now be tested for their suitability for cultivation in the low mountain ranges of South Tyrol. Together with the Fondazione Edmund Mach (TN) and the Fondazione Fojanini (SO), a comparison of new sweet cherry rootstocks for the low mountain ranges was also started.

Events

The Laimburg Research Centre organises a series of events as part of the Action Plan for Mountain Agriculture and Food Sciences to share its knowledge and findings directly with local agricultural practice and industrial production, as well as to train students and teachers from vocational schools and universities. Current events can be found in our agenda.

 

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