QUALITOM, A EUROPEAN RESEARCH PROGRAMME TO BUILD AND TEST A TECHNICAL ITINERARY MODEL IN PROCESSING TOMATO CROPPING

Abstract

Abstract: The aim of this programme is to provide farmers with tools for processing tomato crop management in various conditions in order to satisfy all of the following objectives: to produce a given yield of tomatoes, of good market and hygienic quality (given dry matter content, given pH, absence of chemical compounds harmful to human health) for the production of paste; to minimize the use of chemicals for crop protection; to avoid the release of nitrate to the soil; to reduce production costs. A technical itinerary is defined here as the reasoning and the resulting set of decision rules utilized for the application of cultural techniques to obtain a given production (quantity and quality), with controlled effects on the environment and according to socio-economic constraints. Based on this definition, a model technical itinerary, TImod, was constructed. TImod was expected to be valid in a wide range of constraint sets. At present, the construction of TImod has led to a set of about 100 rules and subrules and some of them have been formalized in computer software. TImod is being tested experimentally over 3 years from 1997 by 10 scientific partners from 5 countries, operating in 10 locations in the main areas of processing tomato production in the European Union. Observations are made at various stages of the crop to ascertain whether the anticipated behaviour of the environment and the crop has been achieved. In each location another treatment (TIloc) consists in cultivating processing tomato with the same framework of objectives and constraints as TImod, according to a local expert using the current technical knowledge in the given area.