International Scientific Conference „Sustainable fruit and berry cultivation“ : the book of abstracts

Dear conference participants and guests, As director of the Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences of Estonian University of Life Sciences, I have a great honour to greet you at the scientific conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Polli Horticultural Research Centre. Research on fruits and berries in Estonia and at our University is carried out in two locations – at horticultural research centre at Polli village in Southern Estonia and on our university campus in Tartu where the Chair of Horticulture mainly operates. Through the history, Polli village has always been related to horticulture. In 1920, an agricultural school was founded at Polli. 25 years later, a horticultural research centre was established, focusing on breeding fruit varieties. During the last two decades, the focus of the horticultural research centre has shifted from breeding and cultivation technologies towards processing and product development. The topic of the conference is sustainable fruit and berry production. In the context of EU Green Deal and ambitious goals for tackling climate change, it is very important to readjust our activities in fruit and berry cultivation as well as processing. On the one hand, new pests and diseases that emerge due to global warming call for extra actions for securing plant health and high quality product. On the other hand, EU strategies foresee reduction of pesticide quantities by 50% in the next decade as well as remarkable increase in organic farming. Efforts to reach the goals will lead us to diversification of plant species, varieties and cultivation methodologies. Many currently grown commercial fruit cultivars may prove unsuitable in low-input or sustainable organic farming systems. However, we are sure that our research communities in collaboration with fruit and berry producers will find right directions and solutions for the selection of suitable varieties as well as sustainable pest control methods. Another important goal is to keep valuable nutrients from waste or residues in the agro-economic cycle. UN Sustainable Development Goals call for reducing food loss in production and supply chain, including postharvest loss up to 50% by 2030. It will make it urgent to find solutions for producers’ side-streams. Valorisation of production side-streams will not only reduce waste but will also help us achieve greater resource productivity. Recent decades have witnessed rapid developments and many good ideas, which will be discussed during the conference. Today we will have speakers from seven different countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Norway, Poland and Romania. I wish you a successful conference and fruitful discussions during the conference. I hope that we will also find new ideas for further cooperation. Aret Vooremäe Director of the Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences Tartu, Estonia