The work aims at a nutritional program focused on olive plants of the Arbequina variety that aims to improve the characteristics of the plant, such as photosynthetic activity, which leads to an improvement in productivity.

With the aim of improving the characteristics of the olive plants used for olive growing in the region, seeking a more stable development, and therefore a better production of these plants, the academic of the Department of Chemistry of the University of La Serena, Fabiola Jamett, together with students who graduated from the Agricultural Engineering degree, are experimenting with an organic fertilizer in Ovalle.

The research has been in development for a year and has focused on work with the Arbequina variety of olive trees. The manufactured product has been characterized by having the typical bases of a traditional fertilizer, being nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but at the same time, it incorporates micronutrients such as copper, zinc or magnesium.

“One of the main problems with this crop is yearling, this means that there is a year with a higher production, we are talking about approximately 12 tons and for the same reason it takes up so many nutrients that the next there is lower production, where it is even reduced. to the half. That is why this nutritional program could help reduce the gap,” says Daniela Moya, a student who graduated in Agricultural Engineering and is currently developing her thesis.

The Chemistry and Agronomy departments of the University of La Serena have been working in olive growing and research for more than 15 years. They also provide services in olive oil analysis, fatty yields, and other aspects, which is why they contacted the company Ecoagro Gaspar and the company in which the treatment has been applied, Sociedad Agrícola y Avícola Santa Carmen Limitada, in order to do the test not in a pilot plant or a small laboratory, but directly under all the conditions in which the olive grove develops.

Thanks to a collaboration agreement, experiments began on the ground, on one hectare, where the nutrient is applied in four periods of the year: floral induction, floral differentiation, flowering and fruit set, filling and maturation.

“What we hope is that the productivity of the olive trees is greater. During this period we have been monitoring both the leaves and the four processes to see the final yield of the olive oil. We have already done a complete analysis of the oil, its nutritional quality and its commercial quality, and we are going to compare it with the new harvest in which we are going to obtain the oil from the trees treated with this new feeding system and we hope that we will have an improvement in nutritional quality. We measure total polyphenols, tocopherols, fatty acid profiles, etc. And we hope that there will be a change, but the farmer, more than just the change in the characteristics of the oil, also expects more productivity. This is a year in which olive trees are declining, but we are seeing that the results are promising,” says Fabiola Jammett, academic at the Department of Chemistry at the University of La Serena.

Finally, the academic points out that “this has been a very enriching experience, both for the children who are training and who are doing their analytical part in leaves, in oil, and also as a university that does research. In addition, it helps the sector to be able to strengthen itself through research that is transferred to its productivity. since it is very important to make this connection with the environment”