The Most Important Fruit Crops in The Mediterranean Basin (Mb) : Position Paper

Abstract

Climatic scenarios predicted for Mediterranean areas pose specific challenges for agriculture. The vulnerability of the fruit crops industry to the modification of agro-climatic conditions depends on both the expected regional climate extremes and the sectors’ adaptation ability. For their perennial status, fruit tree crops are particularly exposed to environmental extremes, i.e. yield and quality of fruit production are strongly affected by genotype x environment interactions. The overall aims of this book, other than presenting an overview of the main fruit crops industry in the Mediterranean basin (Almond, Apricot, Citrus spp., Grape, Olive, Peach), are: i) describing the most interesting features of their cultivation (state of the art), ii) enlighting the possible solutions in order to tackle the negative impacts of climatic extremes on the industry, iii) reporting the main findings of the ‘Freeclimb’ international project (https://primafreeclimb.com/) funded in the framework of PRIMA, a EU initiative meant to foster MB cooperation (https://prima-med.org/).