Articles
PRESENT STATUS OF INTEGRATED FRUIT PRODUCTION IN BELGIUM
First at all the author is a plant physiologist much more concerned with fruit nutrition and storage quality than with all the details of integrated fruit production (IFP) althought in the definition of IFP, problems of nutrition and storage are also taken into account.
The second remark concerns the definition of Belgium.
Since the last revision of the constitution, Belgium is becoming more and more a federal state where are co-existing at least two communities speaking different languages (Flemish and French). The fruit production (more or less 275.000 tons of apple and 70.000 tons of pear) is coming for almost 90% from the flemish part of Belgium, the rest being produced in the french part of Belgium.
Starting from this fact it would be better to speak about the present status of IFP in each of the two parts of Belgium …
However, in this new situation, the Research Station of Gorsem remains until now what we could called a federal station, receiving most of its money from the national state and working for both communities.
If one day agriculture should be also regionalised, it can be imagined that money for research could come only from the regional flemish authorities and no more from the national state.
But even if that happens the non-profit organization named "Research Centre of Gorsem" will continue to make extension work in both parts of Belgium and/or in foreign countries as every private service could do.
The last remark about the title of this contribution is that it does not exist any IFP in Belgium … and so this paper could stop here.
However, from years, the Research Station of Gorsem is doing extension work in the fields of plant protection, plant nutrition, fruit quality and storage quality and the concept of IFP is also coming up in belgian fruit production.