INTERACT conducts trial in Vila Flor

Several researchers of the ISAC line (“Innovation for Sustainable Agro-Food Chains”) of the INTERACT project (“Integrative Research In Environment, Agro-Chains and Technology”) were at Quinta do Prado, in Lodões, Vila Flor, to harvest the olives and extract the oil.

The action, included in Task 3 of that research line (“Improving olive orchards cropping practices to cope with a changing environment”), aimed to “investigate the introduction of new agricultural practices and technologies that promote sustainable olive growing”, Alexandre Gonçalves, one of the INTERACT researchers, said.

According to him, “within the research lines we’re following”, “some tests related to irrigation management and soil maintenance” were installed in the farm. The olive harvest and oil extraction served to “evaluate the impacts that the treatments could have on production and on the quality parameters of the harvests”, he said.

Besides Alexandre Gonçalves, they’re part of the research group Cátia Brito and Luís Pinto, research fellows, and Carlos Correia, responsible for the task. Besides this group, the action also had the participation of students from the doctoral program “Agrichains”, whose research work is also included in the INTERACT project.

Owned by Acushla, S.A., Quinta do Prado has about 300 hectares, 14 of which are occupied by century-old olive trees and more than 200 hectares are of olive trees about 10 years old. Conducting the olive grove in organic production, when the trees reach maturity, the company expects to produce about 350 thousand litres of olive oil per year, making it one of the largest production areas in the region.

This partnership between INTERACT and the company has allowed the implementation of “measures to increase production efficiency and the submission of new applications to financed projects”. An example  is the project “New practices in rainfed olive groves: strategies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change” that was recently approved. This project also involves CITAB “Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences), the anchor-centre of the INTERACT project, and some companies in the region such as Acushla. For Alexandre Gonçalves, this project brings “added value to the company, to our institution and to the Region in terms of knowledge and financing”.