Researchers from the University of Évora (UÉvora) are testing 10 Portuguese varieties of the carob tree to understand which adapt to the conditions of the Alentejo, which could pave the way for future orchards in the region, the institution announced.
In a press release, the Alentejo university explained that the carob varieties, traditionally associated with the Algarve, are being tested at an experimental field in the municipality of Évora.
The research is conducted within the framework of the ALCAROB project – “Applicability of carob cultivation to the sustainability of agriculture in the Alentejo,” coordinated by Hélia Cardoso, from the Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development (MED) of UÉvora.
The work, which aims to understand how these 10 Portuguese carob varieties respond to the edaphoclimatic conditions of the Alentejo, is already presenting results, said the Alentejo academic community.
“The varieties do not all respond in the same way to cold and frost events,” they noted, explaining that the preliminary results of the study, obtained within the scope of a doctoral thesis funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology, “show that some varieties exhibit high levels of frost tolerance.”
The finding, they stressed, “could be particularly relevant in a context where farmers are seeking crops capable of withstanding increasingly demanding environmental conditions.”
UÉvora pointed out that “the question is not only whether the carob tree can grow outside the Algarve, but to understand which varieties should be planted in each region and which planting material could guarantee more productive, homogeneous and predictable orchards.”
“It is not enough to expand the crop. It is necessary to know which planting material is most adapted to each territory,” they stressed.
From this investigation, it may be possible to identify “the genotypes most suitable for different conditions,” enabling the creation of “a scientific basis for a possible expansion of the crop to the Alentejo and, in certain areas, also to other regions of Portugal.”
At the same time, Microplant, a spin-off of the University of Évora specialized in plant propagation, developed a technique that allows producing, in the laboratory, clones of male carob genotypes, with potential use as rootstocks.
The company manages to produce “genetically uniform plants, paving the way to future orchards that are more predictable,” they stated.
The work developed by Microplant “also has another peculiarity: the cloned male genotypes could be used as rootstocks, but the male plants also play an essential role in the orchard itself: producing pollen to ensure the pollination of female varieties.”
And the company, added UÉvora, “is in an advanced stage of developing procedures for the clonal production of female plants, selected from productive trees identified in the Alentejo.”
