Articles
A first step toward the achievement of an integrated plum certification system in Romania in the context of the new regulations
Article number
1439_45
Pages
349 – 356
Language
English
Abstract
The plum is the dominant fruit species in Romania, and hence its great economic importance.
High-quality fruits require healthy orchards that are strongly linked with the use of healthy planting material, free of viral, fungal and bacterial pathogens, as well as of insects and nematodes.
This kind of plants must be produced and propagated in compliance with the international standards and EU directives transposed in the new national legislations.
Because of some shortcomings in the national certification system for propagation virus free plum, Romanian farmers were often pushed to establish orchards with planting material/cultivars coming from abroad, in some cases without data about their behavior under specific climatic conditions of Romania.
However, different plum breeding programs performed in Romania permitted to develop valuable plum cultivars, adapted to local conditions, which should be exploited and made available to farmers.
In this context, Romania is facing with new challenges both regarding to implementation of the new requests that affects the entire pyramid chain of the existing propagation material and forces its reconstruction in terms of the new regulations, as well as for conducting this work mainly toward of the Romanian plum cultivars.
To address these challenges, reconstruction of nuclear-stock material in accordance with the new European directives was already implemented.
As a result of this work, 29 plum cultivars (23 of them resulted from Romanian breeding programs) were successfully certified at pre-basic category and preserved into insect-proof houses at Fruit Research and Development Station Bistrița.
For additional protection of pre-basic plants, activities for their in vitro conservation were started, as well.
Nuclear-stock material will then serve as forerunner to obtain propagation stock (basic/certified), and subsequently to make available suitable scions for producing certified planting material on a large scale.
High-quality fruits require healthy orchards that are strongly linked with the use of healthy planting material, free of viral, fungal and bacterial pathogens, as well as of insects and nematodes.
This kind of plants must be produced and propagated in compliance with the international standards and EU directives transposed in the new national legislations.
Because of some shortcomings in the national certification system for propagation virus free plum, Romanian farmers were often pushed to establish orchards with planting material/cultivars coming from abroad, in some cases without data about their behavior under specific climatic conditions of Romania.
However, different plum breeding programs performed in Romania permitted to develop valuable plum cultivars, adapted to local conditions, which should be exploited and made available to farmers.
In this context, Romania is facing with new challenges both regarding to implementation of the new requests that affects the entire pyramid chain of the existing propagation material and forces its reconstruction in terms of the new regulations, as well as for conducting this work mainly toward of the Romanian plum cultivars.
To address these challenges, reconstruction of nuclear-stock material in accordance with the new European directives was already implemented.
As a result of this work, 29 plum cultivars (23 of them resulted from Romanian breeding programs) were successfully certified at pre-basic category and preserved into insect-proof houses at Fruit Research and Development Station Bistrița.
For additional protection of pre-basic plants, activities for their in vitro conservation were started, as well.
Nuclear-stock material will then serve as forerunner to obtain propagation stock (basic/certified), and subsequently to make available suitable scions for producing certified planting material on a large scale.
Authors
L.A. Zagrai, I. Zagrai, C. Moldovan, S.D. Roșu-Mareș, G.M. Guzu, L.D. Vlasin
Keywords
cultivars, European directives, in vitro, plum, pre-basic material
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