PEANUTPUGLIA PROJECT LAB VISITS
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On September 21, 2022, starting at 10:00 AM, two laboratory visits will take place as part of the PEANUTPUGLIA project - Production and enhancement of peanut fruit in Puglia - funded under the RDP Puglia 2014-2020 - SM 16.2 "Support for pilot projects and the development of new products, practices, processes, and technologies," with a total amount of €452,714.00. The visit will be conducted at the Predictive Microbiology Laboratory of the Department of Agricultural Sciences, Food, Natural Resources, and Engineering (DAFNE) - University of Foggia, Via Napoli No. 25, Foggia, where the Technical Scientific Coordinator of the project - Prof. Antonio Bevilacqua - will showcase the development of a predictive model for fungi and the production of microbial biomass.
The project aims to study and develop the most suitable varietal selection for the territory; develop and test innovative cultivation techniques to make the crop profitable and competitive in the Puglia region; test the adaptability of current harvesting machines or the need to introduce specific ones to maximize yields in this phase; test and refine the best storage and conditioning techniques for fruits in the post-harvest phase to offer high-quality products with the required specifications to the market.
Peanuts are an improvement crop for the soil, favored by a fast cycle, with planting in early May and harvesting at the end of September. In legume cultivation, Puglia is one of the leading regions in the South in terms of surface area and volumes produced, second only to Molise (ISTAT), and can boast many typical varieties. The demand for dried fruits in general and peanuts has been steadily increasing for several years in Italy and in most Western countries, with particularly high rates in recent years, up to +10% in 2017, in a market that exceeded one billion euros in the same year (ISTAT, ISMEA). Therefore, there is an opportunity for Puglia's farmers linked to a growing market and a specific crop, peanuts.
The project partners form an Operational Group of the PEI AGRI, a cooperation model based on the "interactive innovation model" that involves collaboration among various actors to make the best use of different complementary types of knowledge. The main objective is co-creating and disseminating solutions/opportunities ready to be implemented in practice. The PEANUT GO is composed of significant stakeholders such as: AZIENDE AGRICOLE RIUNITE PEDONE, DARE PUGLIA, UNIVERSITA’ DEGLI STUDI DI FOGGIA, CIA PUGLIA, CONAPO, I.F.OR. SRL, and consulting companies that have been promoting and evaluating innovations in the agri-food sector for years, such as ARETE’ and CASSANDRO.
