Grapevine, Viticulture, GBS based marker development, Machine learning, Drone systems, Biological pesticides, Quality improvement, Storage and recycling, Economical impact
Viticulture is an old agricultural practice still having a reliable market in global economy. The traditional practices are commonly used in cultivation; emphasizing improvement in genotype development for better satisfying consumer preferences, adaptation to changing climate, and decreased use of pesticides with respect to environmental awareness. The sustainability of viticulture, thereby, requires extreme efforts to introduce modern techniques to traditional cultivation practices.
The aim of VITISUS (Viticulture sustainability) is to search for the use of modern approaches in viticulture. The project involves two main goals with selection of better varieties for customer preferences and investigation of different approaches during and after cultivation to increase the sustainability of the growth and product. The method of choice of the first goal is to obtain GBS and product quality data of local varieties of common use in different countries with the ultimate aim of developing molecular markers to decrease breeding time in viticulture. The sustainability at different levels including plant protection, product processing and storage with the use of new technological approaches will be assessed to achieve the second goal of the project.
The project currently involves three parties from Turkey; Manisa Viticulture Research Institute (BAEM), Nigde Ömer Halisdemir University (NOHU) and Yeditepe University (YU) with their expertise in viticulture, molecular marker development and waste recycling, respectively. Currently, we are looking forward to include at least two other partners from different countries to achieve the multidisciplinary aim of the ERA-NET.