January Dreer Fellowship Report

North, South, East, West
A Glance at Spanish Agriculture

At approximately 195,000 square miles, Spain is roughly the size of Texas, but its variability – from climate to topography to culture – resembles that of a land much grander. With the Pyrenees in the north, the Sierra Nevadas in the south, and its centralized capital on a plateau, Spain is the most mountainous country in Europe after Switzerland. As a peninsula, Spain is enriched with vast coastline, and its Mediterranean beaches are popularly warm destinations for tourists all year long. It is the country touted for ethnic guitar, passionate Flamenco, athleticism on the soccer field, and valor in the bullring. And, just as the climate, topography, and culture range from one degree to another, so does the agriculture of the country. Therefore, I took the opportunity in January to visit other important agricultural regions during my last few weeks in Spain.

Galícia
After the long Christmas holiday, I traveled to the region of Galícia, north of Portugal. I was told by the folks at IRTA that Galícia is a “different world” compared to the rest of Spain, and indeed, it was. Topographically separated by hills on the eastern and southern borders and coast to the west and north, Galícia is geographically isolated and, like Catalonia, has a distinctive culture and language (Gallego). The region resembles upstate New York, with its rolling hills, green vegetation, and flowing rivers but still maintains the antiquities of Spain with its stone houses and churches. It also resembles upstate New York in the types of crops that can be grown there, with apples, grapes, and chestnuts predominating.

In Lugo – a town in the center of Galícia – there is a campus of the University of Santiago de Compostela. This is the campus that houses the university’s horticulture faculty. One of the members is Dr. Santiago Pereira, who visited Cornell in the summer of 2005, and whom I met at that time. Santiago and others in his laboratory group hosted me during my stay in Lugo. My first day there, Santiago and I visited the center of viticulture and enology near Ourense, south of Lugo. At the station, there are laboratories for wine chemical and sensory analyses and research fields where trials on cropping density, rootstocks, pruning, and training are conducted. A germplasm repository for Galícian wine grape cultivars is also maintained.

The next day, I worked with Santiago’s lab technicians doing work with which I have very little experience: DNA amplification. Perhaps that is why I found the work particularly valuable. Aside from the actual laboratory processes, I learned about the importance of the work in relation to applied agriculture. The DNA amplification we performed was on chestnut varieties, distinguishing their allelic patterns. What is important about this work is not the differences but instead the similarities. Many of the Galícian chestnut cultivars, when grown in different sites and environments, appear different enough that growers give them new varietal names. It has been found through DNA amplification, however, that, in fact, not as many varieties exist as are named. Thus, as efforts are made to sustain genetic resources in the field and forest, this work will lay the foundation of what resources actually exist. It was challenging to learn about this relatively new line of agricultural research, as my molecular knowledge and vocabulary is not strong in English much less Spanish, but it was also incredibly interesting, as the work melds the interests of both basic and applied scientists.

I was back in the field the next day with the technicians but also spent a great deal of time in the car, as we traversed the countryside of Galícia to view other experimental plots. We first went southwest near Pontevedra to tour the regional cider apple variety trial. The plot is small and is managed by a local farmer, given its distance from the university. There are 38 Galícian varieties and a separate section for French varieties. All are planted on the vigorous MM.106 rootstock in effort to overcome soil fungi (mainly Phytophthora) in the often saturated soil. Our next stop was supposed to be a chestnut variety trial, but given its tucked-away location in a forest and some dirt road detours, we never actually found it, so we pushed on to our final stop of the day – the fruit germplasm repository. The repository, near La Coruña, has around 400 apple varieties, 250 pear varieties, 54 cherry varieties, and 31 peach varieties found in Galícia. The planting allows for field observation of desirable traits, and though 400 apple varieties are planted, for example, only about 10% are considered desirable for eating. Nonetheless, their genetic resources are prudently maintained, as they might prove invaluable in future selection and/or breeding. Also, with these fruits, like with chestnut, there are many cases where different names have been assigned to the same genotype, so DNA amplification is an important component of the research done on these crops. Again, it was an interesting facet of research for me to learn about and I appreciated the exposure. When we returned that afternoon, I looked at a map to see where we had been that day, given we probably passed more time in the car than in the field, and I also gained an appreciation for the patience everyone must have in traveling to these distant research sites.

On my last day in Lugo, Santiago showed me around the campus and more specifically the teaching facilities they have available. There is a small plot on campus with a greenhouse and a few rows of apple trees used for teaching and demonstration. There is also a four hectare plot on the outskirts of town used by the entire agriculture faculty, and thus is a patchwork of fruit trees, vegetables, cereals, and forest trees. This plot, however, is rented; thus, it is difficult to do any sort of long-term research there because its availability in the future is uncertain. It, too, is mostly used for teaching purposes.

Andalucía
From the northern reaches of Galícia, I traveled south to pass the following week in Andalucía. Andalucía is the home of Spanish culture perhaps most recognized by foreigners, having long stretches of coastline, Flamenco dancing, and an Arabic flair in its architecture and customs. Nonetheless, in Córdoba, not even the general tourist can deny the importance of agriculture to this region, as olive trees abound on every surrounding hillside. Córdoba is a hub for the olive industry, with the University of Córdoba having a strong agriculture department and CIFA – the Centro de Investigación y Formación Agronomia – being its neighbor and cooperator. CIFA is much like IRTA in Catalonia, being a public institution that does research and extension and is funded by the regional government. Olive research is the emphasis at both the university and the research station, and even though my work at IRTA exposed me well to this industry, I was interested in learning about the differences between the two regions. I found that just as apple culture differs between New York and Washington, for example, so also is true of olive between Catalonia and Andalucía.

My time in Córdoba was spent much like my time in Lugo – getting a sampling of the different research being conducted. The first day, I met with Dr. Carmen del Río, a CIFA researcher who works in propagation, variety, and rootstock studies, while maintaining the World Olive Germplasm Repository (WOGR). Her work in propagation investigates the effects of using shoots, root suckers, and micropropagation on tree characteristics and ultimately fruit quality. Her variety trials are used in comparison with ten other sites planted throughout Spain and trials in Portugal, Italy and Greece. As Arbequina is the popular variety in Catalonia, the stronger-flavored Picual is the choice type in Andalucía. The trials compare Picual’s growth and fruiting competence to the other varieties. Picual is also the variety used in the rootstock study of 36 rootstock varieties. Unlike apple, where a given rootstock performs generally the same among scion varieties (in terms of dwarfing capabilities, precocity, etc.), olive has a strong scion/rootstock interaction. Thus, a given rootstock may dwarf one variety but make another more vigorous, and this is the reason why Carmen is investigating Picual and Núria Arbequina, using the same rootstocks. The WOGR was initiated in 1970 and is continually being updated with 408 varieties currently, 262 having Spanish origin. But that number is perhaps only a fraction of the genetic resources available, as Carmen believes that likely 1500-2000 cultivars exist worldwide.

The next day, I visited the University of Córdoba campus at Rabanales, where I met with professors and toured laboratory facilities. Specifically, I met Dr. Isabel Trujillo who, like Santiago Pereira in Lugo, is doing DNA amplification to identify allelic characteristics to understand whether there is overlap among olive varieties. I also met with Dr. Antonio Trapero in plant pathology. I told him about my Master’s research on apple replant disease, and coincidentally, he did a post doctorate in Washington state studying the same disorder. I questioned whether replant problems have been encountered in olive, and he replied that it is a question yet to be answered. As olives live to be over 100 years, replanting is not a common practice, and new plantings are generally put into virgin soil. So, there is no concrete evidence of a replant problem, but his instinct tells him that there would be a problem if growers were to begin renovating fields.

I spent Wednesday helping graduate students in their trials. We traveled to the university’s Cabra research station, about one hour southeast of Córdoba. The scenery on the way to Cabra was a sea of olives, with waves flowing over the hillsides. It was true olive country. Various research projects are being conducted at the Cabra station, but these graduate students in particular are working on nutrient (nitrogen and potassium) and salinity studies. Our job for the day was measuring last season’s shoot growth in order to estimate next season’s yield, as olives produce on one-year-old wood. The studies are important both economically – as a means of helping growers reduce fertilizer costs – and environmentally – as a means of mitigating soil salinization and nutrient leaching to groundwater.

Dr. Raul de la Rosa of CIFA informed me of the olive breeding program the following day. The priorities of the program are to find varieties that are 1.) small in stature, making mechanical, over-the-tree harvesting and high-density planting feasible and 2.) resistant to pathogens like Spilocaea oleagina (commonly known as “repilo” and considered the apple scab of olive) and Verticillium dahlia (the most important soil fungus affecting olive). Raul has found that the size of Spanish variety Arbosana to be relatively small compared to the Catalonian-favored Arbequina and the Andalucían-favored Picual. It is high-yielding and precocious, producing well at a density of 2000 trees per hectare. The problem with Arbosana, however, is that the quality of its oil is not as high as that from Arbequina and Picual. In terms of disease-resistant varieties, it is a continuous work in progress.

I learned more about the infamous Verticillium dahlia on my final day in Córdoba. I spent the day back on the university campus with Dr. Javier Lopez of the plant pathology department. Javier’s research objectives fall into two general categories: host resistance and integrated management as means of controlling Verticillium. Because it has over 300 hosts but also has been found to survive for 14 years in the soil without a host, Verticillium is a tenacious pest. It became a severe problem as growers expanded olive cultivation into former vegetable ground. Javier has found that the Frantoio, Empeltre, and Koroneiki varieties express resistance to Verticillium, so he is working with breeders to find desirable crosses from these with Picual. His integrated control studies include soil sterilization under plastic, organic soil amendments, and when necessary, fungicide application through drip irrigation lines.

Reus
I spent my final days in Spain back in Reus, helping measure tree growth – like canopy volume and trunk diameter – and it reminded me of my Master’s field work in apples.

Concluding Remarks
Now that I have finished one segment of my trip, I will reflect on a couple matters to which I was particularly observant. The first involves the resources available for agricultural research. In Lugo, I found the lack of field facilities unfortunate, and Santiago finds the situation justifiably frustrating. He was thoroughly impressed by the Cornell orchard facilities that he saw last summer and said that, though Spain is not one of the poorest countries in the European Union, its lack of investment in agricultural research gives it a reputation comparable to the poorest. Without interest and investment in maintaining a strong research reputation, jobs are also scarce, and for this reason, Núria hopes to come to the United States for a post-doctorate position once she finishes her Ph.D. This monetary climate made me realize that though agriculture and education often experience budgetary troubles in the United States, by comparison, we are very lucky.

As sustainability was a theme in my Dreer Fellowship application, it was another matter to which I paid particular attention. As I defined sustainability both in terms of the environment and economics, I will delineate those here as well, beginning with the environment. Certainly there are examples where growers and researchers are emphasizing and advancing land stewardship. Erosion is a constant concern, and I observed various practices – from irrigation strategies to groundcover management – to try to mitigate its frequency. Also, fumigants and pesticides are not commonly used due to consumer concern. In terms of economics, growers are willing to invest in equipment that will reduce labor needs, and researchers are eager to find varieties that will reward growers with high quality fruit. Despite all of these practices, however, I did not observe anything innovative. The sustainable methods being employed were spawned by American research. Perhaps with time sustainability will become more of a focus in Spanish agriculture.

Finally, I could not be more satisfied with the time I passed in Spain. Certainly there were challenging times, especially in terms of language and culture, but these helped me to grow as an individual as well as a scientist. I made lasting friends at IRTA, and my sampling of Spanish agriculture this last month opened my eyes to the diversity of the nation. North, south, east, west – my travels were enough to confuse a compass, and now I will begin another adventure as I embark on my next destination: Chile.