Chile: The project seeks to renew the raspberry and strawberry plants of more than 2,300 small farmers who suffer from low productivity

The plan will take 48 months and seeks to create a supply system for Camarosa strawberry and Heritage raspberry plants that doubles the number of kilos per hectare in small farmers. Macarena Barriga Guerrero The geneticist Javier Chilian says that a good part of the small strawberry and raspberry producers do not obtain the yields that they should obtain in their fields. “For example, the Heritage raspberry variety has a yield potential of 16,000kg per hectare,” he says. "But the plants of small producers are yielding between 3,000 kg and 8,000 kg per hectare, which is almost 50% less than what the plant should theoretically yield." That is why the researcher at the Institute for Agricultural Research (INIA) at its headquarters in Raihuén is promoting a project that solves this problem: called "Generation transfer of germplasm bank to obtain quality plants". The initiative seeks to create a supply system for new genetic material for some 2,300 small strawberry and raspberry ...