Articles
TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED FRUIT CULTURE IN ITALY
These changes are paving the way for the new role that agriculture is being called on to play in a post-industrial society.
The preservation of the natural environment, the quality of life, human health and the quality of produce are concerns for which today’s society is willing to earmark an increasing part of its disposable income.
An eco-compatible system of farming based on these innovative directions is the result of these developments.
Called integrated agriculture, it does not reject out of hand emergent techniques, whether in the field or in product processing.
Rather, in order to establish reasonable limits to and of their use, it seeks fully to understand the nature, the modes of action and the side-effects of the chemicals it employs: the physiological changes induced in plants and soil, the toxicological risks and, more generally, the environmental impact of the means of crop production.
The priority concerns are for the ecosystem and the overall context of crop growing, not merely the species cultivated; for the sanitary status of the crop, not simply its protection at any cost; for the enhancing of product quality rather than the maximizing of quantity; for the proper use of natural resources (solar energy, soil fertility, precipitation and water table management), rather than over their exploitation; for the integrated use of interrelated management techniques designed to promote own-control of the plant rather than a total dependence on intensive methods and chemical inputs which force growth and yield. (Sansavini, 1987 and 1989).