Department of Plant Sciences

Organic production in Poland is rapidly developing due to the increased demand of domestic market and from other EU countries. However, these increases in organic production are mainly occurring in annual crops and pastures, while fruit and vegetable production has encountered more difficulties in widening their market share due to limited availability of technical means of production. The higher level of technical knowledge necessary to conduct an organic orchard is also a constraint for the development of the sector. An integrated, five-year project aiming at the development of technologies and technical inputs focused on three major Polish fruit crops (apple, strawberry and sour cherry) has been funded under the EU Regional Development Fund through the Innovation Economy Operational Program. It involves the Research Institute of Pomology and Floriculture of Skierniewice and the Medical Universtity of Łodz which will carry out research in collaboration with the Institute of Plant Protection (Poznan), the University of Warsaw and the Polytechnic of Koszalin. The project takes an integrated approach that includes: isolation and selection of rhizosphere microorganisms useful for enhancing plant nutrition capacity, development of new inputs and new machines for their efficient application, optimization of nursery and orchard soil management practices, evaluation of the quality of organic fruits through the analysis of pro-health and nutraceutical compounds, analysis of the effect of organic fruit consumption on human health, and economical analysis of the application of the new technologies. A project Web page and dissemination of results are also planned.