Sustainable management of olive groves
The olive is inextricably linked to the history, culture and cuisine of many European countries bordering the Mediterranean, including Spain, Italy and Greece. The environmental impact, however, of maintaining healthy olive groves is considerable as pesticide application is widespread. The International Scientific Cooperation (INCO) Programme brought together experts from institutions across Europe as well as northern Africa to cultivate a more sustainable approach. Experiments were carried out in both Portugal and Egypt to evaluate the effectiveness of different techniques using control plots. The Istituto Politecnico de Braganca in Portugal determined that planting other vegetation within the olive grove greatly benefited the overall health of the ecosystem. The additional vegetation serves to foster increased populations and biodiversity of arthropods that are natural enemies of the pests that attack the olive trees. The type of plants used depends on the local climate. For example, flowering vegetables were successful in Egypt's desert-like climate. Secondary benefits were also realised, such as providing sustenance to the local workforce. The extra vegetation also helped slow the processes of soil erosion and desertification. Additional pest predators could be attracted to the olive grove when naturally occurring vegetation, normally destroyed during soil tillage, was given the chance to develop. The Istituto Politecnico de Braganca aims to perform a full-scale cost-benefit analysis of these techniques and to transfer this knowledge to the olive farming community.
