A new transplanting method for the PGI Margherita Onion is now available.
Mechanized transplant test
"The manual transplanting is beautiful to look at but exhausting and it won't be able to go on for long, because of the lack of turn over, that is the replacement of older workers with younger ones. Hence the adhesion to the 2014/2020 Apulia PSR "Cipomar- Innovations for the productive improvement of the PGI Margherita Onion", funded by the Apulia Region, with the aim of facilitating life and work in the field through the implementation of mechanized activities, commented the president of the consortium, Giuseppe Castiglione.
"The skepticism of many people present at the first tests immediately turned into wonder when we noticed that the machine really inserted the onion seedlings in the sand, all well aligned. The technician of Ferrari srl, the company that produces the machine, met with the producers, who pointed out what they consider to be the main defects of the machine, starting from the distance between one seedling and another (shorter in manual transplanting than in transplanting with the machine) to the excessive amount of land sacrificed to allow the transit of the tractor".
"In the opinion of the technician, these aspects can be overcome by making some changes to the machine. Once the mechanical planting in the fields has been completed, we still need to verify the economic convenience and the speed of transplanting the onion," explained the president of the consortium.
Giuseppe Castiglione and Roberto Romaniello
The project consists of several initiatives and the participation of different partners. In this phase, the main contributors have been the Department of Agricultural Sciences, Food, Natural Resources and Engineering (DAFNE) of the University of Foggia, represented by Professor Roberto Romaniello; Professors Giulia Conversa, Antonio Elia, Francesco Lops; the agronomist of the consortium Ruggiero Piazzolla; the companies Nuova Agricoltura and Frontino Ortofrutticoli società agricola, which have provided land and labor; and obviously the Ferrari company of Modena.
For more information:
Giuseppe Castiglione
Consorzio di Tutela
della Cipolla bianca di Margherita IGP
Via Ronzino, 4
76016 Margherita di Savoia (BT)
+39 339 44 06863
info@consorziocipollabiancamargheritaigp.it
www.cipollabiancaigp.it