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Environment and agriculture

In the field of agriculture, standards in Europe are becoming increasingly stringent. To adapt to this, agriculture must be increasingly ‘cleaner’.

In the field of agriculture, European standards are becoming increasingly stringent, both in terms of agricultural methods and in terms of the products used and the waste produced. To adapt to this, agriculture must be increasingly ‘cleaner’.

To achieve these objectives, several studies are being carried out at the Public University of Navarra. We went to search for it. In the next report we have received four of these studies that are being carried out in the university.

If there is something almost indispensable in agriculture, that is land. we have said ‘almost indispensable’ because in some greenhouses hydroponics techniques are used. In these cases the plants grow without soil, only with the liquid that contains fertilizers. However, they usually do not contain the roots in water, and a soil replacement substrate is placed.

The most commonly used substrates today are perlite and stone fiber. Both are inorganic and have characteristics suitable for use in hydroponic plantations. But they also cause environmental problems. For this reason, research is being carried out at the Public University of Navarra on the appropriateness of wood fibre in place of these inorganic substrates.

NATXE IRIGOIEN; Public University of Navarra: The most commonly used substrates in the 10,000 hectares of hydroponic crops in the state are inert. On the one hand, perlite, and also stone fiber. They are used in construction and have the problem that they are not decomposable, so they create an environmental problem because they do not decompose and sooner or later they will end up in the landfill. However, the fiber of the present invention has the advantage that it decomposes and, after use, the resulting residue can be added to the soil as if it were manure, as if it were another fertilizer.

Other organic substrates have also been used in hydroponic growth, most of which are fruit peels, but this poses problems of homogenization and standardization. Coconut skin is the most commonly used.

NATXE IRIGOIEN; Public University of Navarra: In the case of coconut, it is a waste that originates in tropical areas and must be transported here, and it is also very variable: it has a completely different salinity from one place to another and its characteristics are very different from one lot to another. And this makes it very difficult to use in hydroponics.

They use wood waste as raw material and, after homogenization, analyze the growth of plants on this substrate, the physicochemical characteristics of the substrates and whether it interacts with plants. Always compared to perlite or stone fiber.

But with substrates, plants need to receive enough nutrients to grow properly, which is why fertilizers are used. Among the fertilizer components, nitrogen is of great importance.

CESAR ARRESE; Public University of Navarra: The nitrogen is a vital component of living organisms, and vice versa, the plant is the essential source for us. What is known is that an excess of nitrogen can be perjudicated as much from the point of view of the flow stream which produces excesses of gas and more, such as losses of nitrogen oxide which may be released into the atmosphere, and also because the nitrogen is not present in the walls of the sheets which may cause problems of human health.

Nitrogen is an indispensable ingredient in living things, and for us plants are the source. However, excess nitrogen can be harmful, such as excessive algae in water, or the emission of nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, or it can also damage our health if it accumulates too much in the leaves of vegetables.

With this in mind, Cesar Arrese’s team investigates how and how much the plants fix nitrogen. And also the effect of water, climate or other factors on this consolidation.

CESAR ARRESE; Public University of Navarra: Evidentially, the plant, as we ourselves have done, has responded to changes in the medium and by so much it is not possible to consider the use of nitrogen in an optimal medium, but it is there that it
has to deal with the edaphoclimatic conditions of each zone. We may not work, for example, with models that have been made, for example, of the use of nitrogen in northern Europe. There are models that are adapted to the particular conditions of our environment.

Plants respond to changes in their environment. For this reason, we cannot perform the nitrogen measurement in an optimal environment; we must take into account the local edaphoclimatic characteristics. We, for example, cannot work with models developed in northern Europe; we must adapt the models to the conditions of our environment. The more the nitrogen that must be supplied to the plants in the fertilizer is adjusted, the less excess will remain in the soil and the less the environmental impact will be. Attacks on plants are another of the

factors that condition their growth. When the attackers are insects, insecticides are used to combat them, and insecticides also cause environmental problems. The group of Primitivo Caballero investigates insecticides; more specifically, bioinsecticides.

PRIMITIVO CABALLERO; Public University of Navarra: The principal difference between a microbial bioinsecticide or insecticide and a chemical insecticide is that when the chemical insecticide is active matter, a chemical molecule in the microbial bioinsecticide or insecticide is a pathogenic microorganism or a product of that microorganism, e.g. a protein product of bacteria.

The main difference between a microbial bioinsecticide or insecticide and a chemical insecticide is in the drug. The drug in the chemical insecticide is the chemical molecule, while in the bioinsecticide is a pathogenic microorganism of the insect or a derivative thereof. For example, protein produced by bacteria.

To combat insects that cause damage to the crop, they use the insects’ own diseases.
To do this, they breed insects in college, from eggs to adults, giving them food once a week. The specimens they need in their research are taken to the Institute of Agrobiotechnology, located next to the university. There, they identify the microorganisms that cause diseases to insects and then examine whether these microorganisms are suitable for producing bioinsecticides.

Whenever they can, the insects here use diseases that they naturally have.

PRIMITIVO CABALLERO; Public University of Navarra: The ideal is to use autologous micro-organisms always and when they exist, and to select those which have a greater potential for insecticide, but not always that case. The micro-organism may then be introduced into the other zone, but in that case it should be evaluated in a way that does not have an environmental impact that is very negative in the region where it is intended to be introduced.

It is best to use indigenous microorganisms whenever possible and choose those with the highest insecticidal potential. But it's not always possible. Then it is necessary to bring the microorganisms from somewhere else, in which case it will be necessary to ensure in advance that they do not cause significant negative environmental effects in the region in which they are to be used.

Finally, a fourth factor that can affect crops is also investigated at the Public University of Navarra: genetic diversity. They have seen the loss of local varieties and, to cope with the loss, they have set up a germplasm bank.

GEZAGA SANTESTEBAN; Public University of Navarra: It's a germplasm bank, a place to store endangered species. Gene storage is
fine and can be done, but to be able to store the combination of genes, it is usually necessary to store whole plants.

To preserve the varieties of trees that are about to be lost is to preserve wealth. In fact, many local varieties are adapted to grow under particular conditions or are resistant to particular conditions and therefore require less treatment during cultivation.

As the goal of the economic model of the last few decades has been to maximize production, fewer and fewer fruit varieties have been cultivated around the world. As a result, genetic diversity has been greatly reduced.

GEZAGA SANTESTEBAN; Public University of Navarra: (...) we all say that today’s tomatoes are not the same as before. For what reason? Well, mainly because we have promoted tomatoes that give a lot of production. But if we want tomatoes with more flavor, where should we look? They were in tomatoes before. It’s the same with apples, vineyards or any other crop; we’ve lost a lot of variability trying to make a big profit. But the genes and gene combinations are there, behind it.

This research group is an expert in trees, fruit trees. Specifically, they store cherry trees, vines, olive trees and apple trees in the germplasm bank. But in addition to preserving them, they also do research to identify the interesting characteristics that these varieties can have and to initiate improvement plans.