A total of 13 farmers in Santander de Quilichao (Cauca) will be venturing into the tropical fruit market after having optimized the production of honey gold pineapple grown in acid soils of that area. The members of the Association of Fruits from Santander de Quilichao (Frupasa) sought advice from the UN in order to deepen the study of the nutritional requirements of honey or golden pineapple gold (known as MD2), which has a great marketing potential.
The golden sweet pineapple is the third most-produced crop in Cauca and growing it gives producers the possibility of effectively participating in a market that generates around 3,000 million dollars a year, as evidenced by the data of Pacific Invest regarding May 2015. In face of this, researcher Jennifer Lopez Montoya decided to pursue her masters in Agricultural Science by determining the appropriate dose of fertilizer needed for this pineapple variety in acid soils.
The study was conducted in the village of Alegria, located in Santander de Quilichao, northern Cauca, as its soils have limitations in physical aspects because they contain a pH (acidity) lower than 5.5 and are associated with elements that can create toxicities. "For example, as in the case of exchangeable aluminium and nutritional deficiencies such as phosphorus," says Hector Fabio Ramos Rodriguez, professor of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences.
Among the actions taken was the liming method, which involves the preparation and application of agricultural lime and is used to neutralize the acidity of the soil and improve its pH, ensuring that the fertilization takes effect on the product. In this study, this procedure was performed on the four fields where the research is being conducted. After performing this process, researchers proceeded to plant the fruits.
Preparing the four plots, said the young researcher, took a month. In addition, farmers fertilized the plots every 15 days for nine months, at the time pineapple starts flowering. Lopez Montoya said that each of the four plots had 32 parcels with 152 plants each, and that they were given eight fertilizer treatments under various conditions. The applications, which were repeated four times, were composed of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and trace elements required by the crop.
"Weed, pest and disease controls were performed with the farmers. Irrigation, given the intense summer, was also conducted with farmers and the plants were monitored in their flowering processes. We want to have a successful fertilization plan to know how much farmers are investing in fertilizers and to find out how many kilos of fruit they get," Lopez said.
Since then, 32 plant samples and seven soil samples are taken from the plots every three months and shipped to the laboratory, where they run a full analysis of leaf tissue so as to find out how many nutrients the plants and the soil have.
According to Herney Darío Vasquez Amariles, professor and project manager, "the innovation of this project is that it details a fertilization plan checking what the real needs for nutrients are in local conditions, as producers did not known the crop’s requirements in detail; that is, this thesis is determining the levels of nutrient extraction to improve and quantify production and performance."
