By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.
To help reduce pesticide use in European apple orchards, growers in Romania can now grow scab-free fruit without having to rely entirely on chemical solutions.
Thanks to cooperation between Romanian scientists, Cornell and the university's Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., the scientists started a project to grow scab-free apple varieties developed by Romanian apple breeders to resist the scab, which causes a rough-shaped lesion on the fruit.
"Because for centuries they have been growing fruit like pears, plums and apples, the Romanians are inherently good horticulturists," said Harvey Reissig, professor of entomology and a researcher at the Agricultural Experiment Station. He is one of five Cornell scientists offering assistance. "Since they are experienced, it's fairly easy to translate our information to them."
By using a strategy known as integrated pest management (IPM), U.S. scientists have been able to show that apples can be grown using lesser amounts of pesticide.
Through international cooperation, Western scientists met with Romanian agriculturists and began a program that would bring essential help. The program is "Small Scale, Sustainable, IPM and Production Systems for Apples in Romania," a cooperative project among Cornell, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Massachusetts, which is reported in the latest issue of New York's Food and Life Science Bulletin #146, published in February. The project was funded by the USDA's Office of International Cooperative Development.
Other Cornell scientists participating in the project include: Arthur Agnello, associate professor of entomology; Joseph Kovach, fruit IPM coordinator; Terence Robinson, associate professor of horticulture; and Wayne Wilcox, associate professor of plant pathology.
Romania grows more than 240,000 acres of apples, making it one of the top apple-producing countries in the world. The large government orchards are being broken up, thus many of the country's small farms lack the desperately needed financial resources to purchase new equipment or even to buy critical pesticides. The potential of losing their crop to the apple scab became a problem.
Apple scab, insect and mite pests are more difficult to control in Romania than in commercial orchards in the United States. The Western scientists learned that most homes in the country's Curtea de Arges region have a few apple trees that had never been sprayed for pests.
Reissig reports that newer, environmentally friendly compounds not yet available to growers in the United States are commonly used in Europe and are registered for use on apples in Romania. He also said that Western scientists also gain experience working with small-scale, sustainable environments.
Successfully battling apple pests is only part of the problem; gaining consumer acceptance is another part. Romanian consumers currently enjoy the Delicious, Golden Delicious, Rome and the Jonathan apples, and have yet to try the new scab-free varieties.