Post on 27-Nov-2021
Sustainable winegrowing: key questions and research trends
in Italy
Federica GaiottiCREA VE Research Centre for Viticulutr and Oenology – Conegliano (ITALY)
Sustainability in winegrowing
• What’s the impact of the viticultural
activities on the environment?
• How can we minimize negative effects
of agricultural activities?
• Priorities for sustainable vine growing?
• How research can meet new emerging
needs of viticolture?
Wine production in the world 2017
47 millionhectoliters
Overview of Italian viticulture
(OIV data, 2018)
696.000 Ha
127.000 Ha
2,3 % Total Italian surface
302.072 Km2
0,1 % Total SA surface
1.220.000 Km2
Large variability in mesoclimates
Temperature Rainfall
Need for agronomic practice tailored to site-specific climates
Great soil variability:About 50% of world pedo-diversity
(Costantini et al. The soils of Italy)
Site-specific approaches for vineyard planting and for soil management in
order to:•preserve soil fertility•prevent erosion
•protect the landscapes
DOCGPremium wines
Super-premium wines
DOC, IGT, VdTPopular wines
Basic wines
Italian wine classification
Clear distinction in viticulture models
Top wine terroirs (hilly areas)manual management, high costs, high quality
Small fragmented dimension of the vineyards: average vineyard size: 1,6 Ha - France:6, Spain: 3, USA: 18, Canada:7, Cile:14 (ISTAT 2010)
Deeply rooted wingrowing traditions
Strong linkage with the landscape
DOCGPremium wines
Super-premium wines
Sustainable management strategies
Priorities
•Maintaining the quality and tipicity in the climate changing scenario
•Preserving the natural vocation of the terroir (soil fertility, biodiversity, etc)
•Protecting the landscape
Sustainable management strategies
Priorities
Combine economic (yield and quality at low production costs) and environmental sustainability:
•Reduction of inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, et.)
•Improved mechanization/ precision viticulture techniques (limiting labour costs and inputs)
•Promotion of a “green image” to differentiate and give an extra value to wines
DOCG, DOC, IGT, VdTShare some common
priorities
DOC, IGT, VdTPopular wines
Basic wines
Plain areas, larger vineyard size
Vineyards higly mechanized
Higher innovation in vineyard management
With reference to your farm, how important are each of the following elements/activities in helping to create value for your clients? (1=not at all; 5 of
utmost importance)
From First Report on Sustainable Winegrowing, 2014
Reduction of chemical inputs
• Pesticides (> 98%)
• Erbicides (2%)
• Fertilizers
Italy5,7 Kg /Ha/year
active compounds
Approaches to reducing fertilizer input
AMOUNT OF CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS IN AGRICULTURE IN ITALY
Approaches to reducing fertilizer input
• Concrete steps have been taken to reduce the impact of fertilization
• Further research is needed….
Topics of research
• Increase knowledge of nutrient dynamics and uptake
• Techniques able to match the release of nutrients with the rate of uptake by the vine
• More efficient and sustainable products (nanofertilizes)
• Integrated fertilization techniques (use of mycorrhizae)
• Precision fertilization (georeferenced maps - variable-rate spreaders)
• Traditional approaches (chemical analysis of soil, plant tissues, fruits)• Gene expression as an indicator to guide fertilization
(from Zhang et al, 2016)
Increase knowledge of nutrient dynamics and uptake
Genes for nutrient assimilation are differently expressed during the growing cycle Efficient fertilization nutrients applied when genes are highly expressed and the
element uptake is maximum
NITROGEN UPTAKE
High affinity
nitrate uptake
rate at different
phenological
stages in Pinot g.
Relative gene
expression for
VvNAR2.2 gene,
involved in the
nitrate transport
in the roots
a)
b)
(Gaiotti, Chitarra, Nerva, Tomasi, unpublished data)
Chemical/genetic approach
Techniques able to match the release of nutrients with the rate of uptake by the vine
Fertigation
Nitrate uptakeFertigation schedule tested on Trebbiano and Pinot b. Nitrogen is applied at different rates, following the nitrate uptake in the growing cycle.
Traditional Fertigation
Kg/vine 15,4 a 15,9 a
N° bunches 35 a 37 a
Bunch weight (g) 369 a 364 a
Sugars (Babo) 17,1 a 17,1 a
Acidity (g/L) 5,5 a 5,5 a
Grado alc. potenziale 11,5 11,5
YAN (mg/litro) 150 a 112 a
TREBBIANO – average data16 -18
Traditional Fertigation
Kg/vine 10,2 a 9,5 a
N° bunches 56 a 55 a
Bunch weight (g) 182 a 173 a
Sugars (Babo) 16,0 a 15,8 a
Acidity (g/L) 5,7 a 5,7 a
Grado alc. potenziale 3,30 a 3,26 a
YAN (mg/litro) 307 a 278 a
PINOT B. – average data16-18
Amounts applied (Kg/ha) N P K
Traditional fertilization
Granular fertilizers (post budbrake – flowering, post harvest)95 35 240
Fertigation
8 applications from budbrake – post harvest70
-25%
40 120-50%
Fertigation study on Trebbiano and Pinot b.
Knowledge of the nutrient uptake dynamics applied to this technique allows to reduce
fertilizer inputs without affecting the yield or quality
NUE: dry matter produced per unit
of nutrient applied
More efficient fertilizers: nanofertilizes
Nanofertilizers: nanoparticles (size ≤ 100 nm) with increased NUE
Types of nanofertilizers
• Macro/micronutrient encapsulated by nanomaterials• Macro/micronutrient at nanoscale level• NM-enhanced fertilizers• Engineered NMs (TiO2-NPs, CNTs, Graphene)
Recent literature provides several studies that showed the effectiveness of nanofertilizers
T1 T2 T3
Apatites nanoparticles (naturally reach in P and Ca) enriched with N an K. - High amounts of nutriens incorporated in small
particles- Controlled release (nutriets adsorbed on the
surface are realised in few hours, thoseincorporeted inside the particles are released in days/weeks.
Engineered nano-apatites
Dal Sasso et. al (2018) Engineering biomimetic nano-Apatites as smart nanofertilizers: Chemical and crystallographic characterization. 3rd Joint AIC-SILS Conference - Rome 25 - 28 June 2018
• C: Control
• T1: Granular fertilizer
• T2: Nanofert – soil apllication
• T3: 60% granular + 40% Nanofert foliar application)
T1: 45 units NT2/T3 -20% N
Engineered nano-
apatites
N input reduced by 20% with no effect on yield and quality
Treatment Kg/vineTSS
(brix)Acidity (g/L)
C 2,0 b 21,9 8,5
T1 2,6 a 21,0 7,8
T2 2,4 a 21,7 8,4
T3 2,5 a 21,6 7,8
Sig. ns ns ns
• C: Control
• T1: Granular fertilizer
• T2: Nanofert – soil apllication
• T3: 60% granular + 40% Nanofert foliar application)
Data 2019
Sustainable Weed Control in Vineyards
Toatal annual amount used in Viticulture in Italy: 192.416 Kg
Europe held around 16.6% of the global glyphosate market
Transparency Market Research, 12
Distribution of glyphosate and
aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) in
agricultural topsoils(0–15/20 cm) of the
EU
Silva et al. (2018)
• Gly or AMPA were present in 45% of the topsoils collected, • Gly/AMPA contents in soil were highest under permanent• crops (vineyards)
Rising concerns about glyphosate safety
• Several counties have taken steps to either restrict or ban glyphosate • In 2017 Italy was one of seven EU nations to vote against relicensing glyphosate• EIP-AGRI (European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and
Sustainability) set up a new focus group on weed management (analyzeopportunities/innovative solutions)
Priority areas for development foreseen in 2050
• New herbicides (bioherbicides based on plant extracts or microbes)• Improved integrated management techniques (monitoring-physical
control-biological control-chemical control)• Precision agriculture and robotics (automated robots that recognize
weeds and act mechanically on them)
No new herbicides with new sites
of actions have been introduced
since the 1980s
Casuese: more stringent regulatory requirements for new products (much greater cost to get a new product to market)??
Need for new herbicides with different MOA - Emphasis on:
Natural products from plants (allochemicals)
Bioerbicides from microorganisms
RNA Interference Herbicides
Discovery and development of new herbicides
Main Limits: hig costs , high amounts required, termporary control effect
Natural products from plants (allochemicals)
• Several phytoextracts under screening(Dayan and Duke 2014; Evans-Roberts et al. 2016; Venturelli et al.
2015,..
• Most interesting: essential oils and organic
acids (display broad-spectrum and rapid action)
Research ongoing
RNA Interference Herbicides
Limits• formulation to achieve efficient uptake into the target plant
as a sprayed product• methods for economical large-scale production of RNAs• From a regulatory perspective, it is not clear how long it
would take to register a new herbicide based on this technology
• Use of RNA to silence key weed genes• Great potential for weed management, because
sequences can be designed to selectively target a specific weed species.
(from Dubrovina and Kiselev, 2019)
Integrate management techniques
Glyphosate Mowing + Pel. acid
Trial 2019- Soave area, ITALY- Weeding treatments compared:
Glyphosate Mowing + Pelargonic acid
Integrating different control systems to reduce the chemical inputs to the soil
% of surface covered by weeds
Test the techniques in the field to adapt them to the weed species and to the climate conditions of a specific area to make them effective
Monitoring of weed growth during the season
Sustainable viticulture
starts with research and innovation
Thanks for your attention!