Tomato (lycopersicon esculentum, cv. Cxd271bio) yield and quality during conversion from conventional to organic production

Tomato (lycopersicon esculentum, cv. CXD271bio) yield and quality during conversion from conventional to organic production

N. Nardo¹, S. Foddai¹, E. Azzini¹, I. Baiamonte¹, S. Di Ferdinando², S. Paoletti², V. Vizioli³ and F. Paoletti¹*

*E-mail: paoletti@inran.it; Tel: 00390651494562; Fax: 00390651494550

The conversion of a conventional farm to the methods of the organic farming is a very critical stage of technical and economical investment. From an agronomical point of view, usually the conversion needs a very different length of time with respect to that set by the regulation, because the organic farming is based on the soil fertility and, in general, on the preservation at the equilibrium of the farm’s ecosystem. These elements affect time and method of the conversions that, although based on clear principles, can require different interventions and solutions and give different results in different times depending on the starting conditions of fertility, farm organization, operating possibilities and knowledge.

A research project has been funded by the Lazio Region (central Italy) into the Interregional Programme Agriculture Quality with the general objective to monitor the soil characteristics and biodiversity, the quality of the products as well as to study the economical aspects in a farm sited in Lazio Region (Central Italy) during a 3 years conversion period from conventional to organic. Generally, in the geographical area interested by this study the organic farms have not a livestock. For this reason the conversion plan was focused on the rotation and the use of green manure. This work concerns the results of the first year of the conversion (certification body: Suolo e Salute srl). In particular, the results of the determination of the yield and some quality characteristics of processing tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum, cv. CXD271bio) are presented. Moreover, the results were compared to those from a neighboring farm managed with the conventional method, having the same characteristics of the soil. The tomato samples from two field replicates of both the farms were analysed for the following parameters: moisture and soluble solids content, titratable acidity, colour, texture, composition in organic acids, carotenoids and antioxidant capacity with FRAP and TEAC methods. Data were analysed by Anova and multiple comparison test (Duncan at P0.05).