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Crop yield response to water - Cra

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Lead AuthorSCris<strong>to</strong>s Xiloyannis(Università degli studi dellaBasilicata, Potenza, Italy),Giuseppe Montanaro(Università degli studi dellaBasilicata, Potenza, Italy)KiwifruitContributing AuthorBar<strong>to</strong>lomeo Dichio(Università degli studi dellaBasilicata, Potenza, Italy)Introduction and BackgroundGlobally, the green kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa [A.Chev.] C.F. Liangand A.R. Ferguson), represents about 95 percent of the commercialkiwifruit, all produced with just one variety, Hayward. Otherspecies, such as Actinidia arguta (known as baby kiwi) is grown for a nichemarket and is also recognized for ornamental purposes. Only recently,some yellow fleshed varieties that originated in in New Zealand and Italy(Actinidia chinensis Planch.) have appeared on the international markets.The main training systems adopted for the kiwifruit are the T-bar and thePergola, with plantation densities ranging from 400-600 (Pergola) up <strong>to</strong>720 plant/ha (T-bar). Canopy management should focus on determining theappropriate bud load (150 000 -200 000 bud/ha) in winter and on maximizingthe carbon budget during the growing season by reducing the amoun<strong>to</strong>f shaded leaves by summer pruning (Xiloyannis et al., 1999). This in turnenhances light availability within the canopy improving fruit growth andsome fruit quality traits (e.g. calcium content, Montanaro et al., 2006).As for pistachio, kiwifruit needs male plants <strong>to</strong> produce pollen for thefemale. The standard male <strong>to</strong> female plant ratio adopted is 1:6. Distributionof male plants is important <strong>to</strong> ensure pollination and adequate fruit sizeand <strong>yield</strong>. The use of bee hives or artificial pollen distribution during bloomis recommended.Total global production in 2008 was 1.31 <strong>to</strong>nne, on 82 547 ha productionarea (FAO, 2011). Italy is the first producing country in the world (36 percent)followed by New Zealand (28 percent) and Chile (13 percent). However,these statistics do not include China, whose production has been estimatedat 403 000 <strong>to</strong>nne of fruit in 2004 (about 65 000 ha producing area). Figure 1presents the production trends of the main countries since 1985.In addition <strong>to</strong> the green cultivar Hayward, a recent review describes thenew cultivars of A. deliciosa and A. chinensis (yellow fleshed), which havebeen recently selected and released (Tes<strong>to</strong>lin and Ferguson, 2009).488crop <strong>yield</strong> <strong>response</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>water</strong>

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