Managing Tuta Absoluta
One of the main challenges for tomato growers in recent years has been the difficulty in controlling Tuta Absoluta. A tiny tomato leafmine (Lepidoptera : Gelechiidae), Tuta Absoluta is causing devastating effects for growers in the mediterrenean region. The pest originated from South America where it has been around since the 60’s and was first...
Managing the water ciris
Water management has in recent years become one the main topics of debates in what concerns global sustainability. Water is a necessary resource for our well being, our very survival well as for the preservation of ecosystems. With the globalization of the economy the use of water has increased drastically during the past ten years due...
Integrated pest management systems
During the past decade the European union has invested much efforts towards an integrated and sustainable agricultural policy. New policies have been defined with the objective of finding improved nutritional safety for both consumers and for the environment. One of the consequences we have seen in agriculture is radical change in pest management practices. Agriculture...
How tomatoes lost their taste
If you ever tried home grown tomatoes you probably wandered why they taste better than the commercially produced ones or the ones you commonly find in supermarket shelves. A team of scientists from the Us and Spain coordinated by Ann Powel from University of California in Davis have discovered the reason why: a genetic mutation,...
Economy and biodiversity
One of the greatest miss-understandings that we come to accept is that capitalism and biodiversity cannot co-exist, that economy growth cannot happen without giving up our biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variety of all living organisms (plant animals and microorganisms) and their relationship with the ecosystems. The term applies for all the variety of genes (DNA),...
Crop rotation
Crop rotation means alternating crop variety each season for at least three growing seasons this means that the same crop will not be planted in the same place and will return to it after three growing seasons. It is a necessary practice where tomato is cultivated in monoculture. The main reason crop rotation is adopted is...
Tomatoes fosters your wellbeing
Eating tomatoes twice a week increases your wellbeing makes you happier and prevents depression. A new study published in the journal of affective disorders this year by a group of researchers from china and Japan revealed that eating tomatoes may not be a cure for depression but it can help lowering the chances of falling...
Optimizing the agricultural irrigation system
The rise in world population and improvement in living standards in developing countries will result in an increase in agricultural product demand. As agriculture products demand increases water is becoming a precious commodity especially in poorer countries where agricultural land and water for irrigation are of primary importance. Today’s world population of 6,000 million is...
Agraz on the news
Agraz has recently grabbed media attention especially from nordic correspondents who have taken an interest on the company, its production model and ability to adapt to sustainable standards of production. As the company is pushing both towards expanding its production capacity in china, it is at the same time getting its farmers to radically...
Building a Sustainable future for Agriculture
The term sustainability, by and large ignored during the past century by the corporate world, has in more recent years evolved to become central and a key issue for policy makers and corporate strategists. Driven by stronger consumer awareness in ecological issues, in agriculture sustainability has grown from the need to develop an equilibrium...
The impact of agriculture on GhG emission
It is widely acknowledged that climate change through emission of greenhouse gasses (GHG) in the atmosphere is causing one of the biggest environmental threats worldwide. Since the 1990s the international community has been faced with the challenge of global warming and its consequence for the environment and economy . The European union has made a...