Sustainable winegrowing: key questions and research trends

in Italy

Federica GaiottiCREA VE Research Centre for Viticulutr and Oenology – Conegliano (ITALY)

Sustainability in winegrowing

• What’s the impact of the viticultural

activities on the environment?

• How can we minimize negative effects

of agricultural activities?

• Priorities for sustainable vine growing?

• How research can meet new emerging

needs of viticolture?

Wine production in the world 2017

47 millionhectoliters

Overview of Italian viticulture

(OIV data, 2018)

696.000 Ha

127.000 Ha

2,3 % Total Italian surface

302.072 Km2

0,1 % Total SA surface

1.220.000 Km2

Large variability in mesoclimates

Temperature Rainfall

Need for agronomic practice tailored to site-specific climates

Great soil variability:About 50% of world pedo-diversity

(Costantini et al. The soils of Italy)

Site-specific approaches for vineyard planting and for soil management in

order to:•preserve soil fertility•prevent erosion

•protect the landscapes

DOCGPremium wines

Super-premium wines

DOC, IGT, VdTPopular wines

Basic wines

Italian wine classification

Clear distinction in viticulture models

Top wine terroirs (hilly areas)manual management, high costs, high quality

Small fragmented dimension of the vineyards: average vineyard size: 1,6 Ha - France:6, Spain: 3, USA: 18, Canada:7, Cile:14 (ISTAT 2010)

Deeply rooted wingrowing traditions

Strong linkage with the landscape

DOCGPremium wines

Super-premium wines

Sustainable management strategies

Priorities

•Maintaining the quality and tipicity in the climate changing scenario

•Preserving the natural vocation of the terroir (soil fertility, biodiversity, etc)

•Protecting the landscape

Sustainable management strategies

Priorities

Combine economic (yield and quality at low production costs) and environmental sustainability:

•Reduction of inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, et.)

•Improved mechanization/ precision viticulture techniques (limiting labour costs and inputs)

•Promotion of a “green image” to differentiate and give an extra value to wines

DOCG, DOC, IGT, VdTShare some common

priorities

DOC, IGT, VdTPopular wines

Basic wines

Plain areas, larger vineyard size

Vineyards higly mechanized

Higher innovation in vineyard management

With reference to your farm, how important are each of the following elements/activities in helping to create value for your clients? (1=not at all; 5 of

utmost importance)

From First Report on Sustainable Winegrowing, 2014

Reduction of chemical inputs

• Pesticides (> 98%)

• Erbicides (2%)

• Fertilizers

Italy5,7 Kg /Ha/year

active compounds

Approaches to reducing fertilizer input

AMOUNT OF CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS IN AGRICULTURE IN ITALY

Approaches to reducing fertilizer input

• Concrete steps have been taken to reduce the impact of fertilization

• Further research is needed….

Topics of research

• Increase knowledge of nutrient dynamics and uptake

• Techniques able to match the release of nutrients with the rate of uptake by the vine

• More efficient and sustainable products (nanofertilizes)

• Integrated fertilization techniques (use of mycorrhizae)

• Precision fertilization (georeferenced maps - variable-rate spreaders)

• Traditional approaches (chemical analysis of soil, plant tissues, fruits)• Gene expression as an indicator to guide fertilization

(from Zhang et al, 2016)

Increase knowledge of nutrient dynamics and uptake

Genes for nutrient assimilation are differently expressed during the growing cycle Efficient fertilization nutrients applied when genes are highly expressed and the

element uptake is maximum

NITROGEN UPTAKE

High affinity

nitrate uptake

rate at different

phenological

stages in Pinot g.

Relative gene

expression for

VvNAR2.2 gene,

involved in the

nitrate transport

in the roots

a)

b)

(Gaiotti, Chitarra, Nerva, Tomasi, unpublished data)

Chemical/genetic approach

Techniques able to match the release of nutrients with the rate of uptake by the vine

Fertigation

Nitrate uptakeFertigation schedule tested on Trebbiano and Pinot b. Nitrogen is applied at different rates, following the nitrate uptake in the growing cycle.

Traditional Fertigation

Kg/vine 15,4 a 15,9 a

N° bunches 35 a 37 a

Bunch weight (g) 369 a 364 a

Sugars (Babo) 17,1 a 17,1 a

Acidity (g/L) 5,5 a 5,5 a

Grado alc. potenziale 11,5 11,5

YAN (mg/litro) 150 a 112 a

TREBBIANO – average data16 -18

Traditional Fertigation

Kg/vine 10,2 a 9,5 a

N° bunches 56 a 55 a

Bunch weight (g) 182 a 173 a

Sugars (Babo) 16,0 a 15,8 a

Acidity (g/L) 5,7 a 5,7 a

Grado alc. potenziale 3,30 a 3,26 a

YAN (mg/litro) 307 a 278 a

PINOT B. – average data16-18

Amounts applied (Kg/ha) N P K

Traditional fertilization

Granular fertilizers (post budbrake – flowering, post harvest)95 35 240

Fertigation

8 applications from budbrake – post harvest70

-25%

40 120-50%

Fertigation study on Trebbiano and Pinot b.

Knowledge of the nutrient uptake dynamics applied to this technique allows to reduce

fertilizer inputs without affecting the yield or quality

NUE: dry matter produced per unit

of nutrient applied

More efficient fertilizers: nanofertilizes

Nanofertilizers: nanoparticles (size ≤ 100 nm) with increased NUE

Types of nanofertilizers

• Macro/micronutrient encapsulated by nanomaterials• Macro/micronutrient at nanoscale level• NM-enhanced fertilizers• Engineered NMs (TiO2-NPs, CNTs, Graphene)

Recent literature provides several studies that showed the effectiveness of nanofertilizers

T1 T2 T3

Apatites nanoparticles (naturally reach in P and Ca) enriched with N an K. - High amounts of nutriens incorporated in small

particles- Controlled release (nutriets adsorbed on the

surface are realised in few hours, thoseincorporeted inside the particles are released in days/weeks.

Engineered nano-apatites

Dal Sasso et. al (2018) Engineering biomimetic nano-Apatites as smart nanofertilizers: Chemical and crystallographic characterization. 3rd Joint AIC-SILS Conference - Rome 25 - 28 June 2018

• C: Control

• T1: Granular fertilizer

• T2: Nanofert – soil apllication

• T3: 60% granular + 40% Nanofert foliar application)

T1: 45 units NT2/T3 -20% N

Engineered nano-

apatites

N input reduced by 20% with no effect on yield and quality

Treatment Kg/vineTSS

(brix)Acidity (g/L)

C 2,0 b 21,9 8,5

T1 2,6 a 21,0 7,8

T2 2,4 a 21,7 8,4

T3 2,5 a 21,6 7,8

Sig. ns ns ns

• C: Control

• T1: Granular fertilizer

• T2: Nanofert – soil apllication

• T3: 60% granular + 40% Nanofert foliar application)

Data 2019

Sustainable Weed Control in Vineyards

Toatal annual amount used in Viticulture in Italy: 192.416 Kg

Europe held around 16.6% of the global glyphosate market

Transparency Market Research, 12

Distribution of glyphosate and

aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) in

agricultural topsoils(0–15/20 cm) of the

EU

Silva et al. (2018)

• Gly or AMPA were present in 45% of the topsoils collected, • Gly/AMPA contents in soil were highest under permanent• crops (vineyards)

Rising concerns about glyphosate safety

• Several counties have taken steps to either restrict or ban glyphosate • In 2017 Italy was one of seven EU nations to vote against relicensing glyphosate• EIP-AGRI (European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and

Sustainability) set up a new focus group on weed management (analyzeopportunities/innovative solutions)

Priority areas for development foreseen in 2050

• New herbicides (bioherbicides based on plant extracts or microbes)• Improved integrated management techniques (monitoring-physical

control-biological control-chemical control)• Precision agriculture and robotics (automated robots that recognize

weeds and act mechanically on them)

No new herbicides with new sites

of actions have been introduced

since the 1980s

Casuese: more stringent regulatory requirements for new products (much greater cost to get a new product to market)??

Need for new herbicides with different MOA - Emphasis on:

Natural products from plants (allochemicals)

Bioerbicides from microorganisms

RNA Interference Herbicides

Discovery and development of new herbicides

Main Limits: hig costs , high amounts required, termporary control effect

Natural products from plants (allochemicals)

• Several phytoextracts under screening(Dayan and Duke 2014; Evans-Roberts et al. 2016; Venturelli et al.

2015,..

• Most interesting: essential oils and organic

acids (display broad-spectrum and rapid action)

Research ongoing

RNA Interference Herbicides

Limits• formulation to achieve efficient uptake into the target plant

as a sprayed product• methods for economical large-scale production of RNAs• From a regulatory perspective, it is not clear how long it

would take to register a new herbicide based on this technology

• Use of RNA to silence key weed genes• Great potential for weed management, because

sequences can be designed to selectively target a specific weed species.

(from Dubrovina and Kiselev, 2019)

Integrate management techniques

Glyphosate Mowing + Pel. acid

Trial 2019- Soave area, ITALY- Weeding treatments compared:

Glyphosate Mowing + Pelargonic acid

Integrating different control systems to reduce the chemical inputs to the soil

% of surface covered by weeds

Test the techniques in the field to adapt them to the weed species and to the climate conditions of a specific area to make them effective

Monitoring of weed growth during the season

Sustainable viticulture

starts with research and innovation

Thanks for your attention!