Examination of modern and traditional applications in hazelnut production

Abstract

Hazelnut production in Turkey, which is carried out in a land area of approximately 700 thousand ha and yields ~600 thousand t year(-1) of in shell nuts, makes up about 70% of the world’s hazelnut production. Turkey is followed by Italy, Georgia, USA, Azerbaijan, China, Iran, Spain, respectively, in terms of major hazelnut producing countries. Italy is the second largest hazelnut producing country with a production area of 70 thousand ha. Its share of world production is approximately 10%. Spain is one other main hazelnut producing country with 14 thousand t year(-1). A new European ERASMUS + Project “Examination of modern and traditional applications in hazelnut production” was prepared highlighting a “Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices”. Four partners from Turkey (Ordu Commercial Exchange, Ordu University, Ordu Governor and Altinordu Chamber of Agriculture), one from Italy (Universita degli Studi della Tuscia, Viterbo), and one from Spain (IRTA-Mas de Bover, Tarragona) are involved in this EU project. The most fundamental problem in hazelnut is low quality and low yield according to the World trade union. Accordingly, teaching new methods to the farmers by sharing the best practices with vocational training in Turkey, Italy and Spain, which enjoy the highest shares in hazelnut culture, would make great contributions to this issue. At the same time, this would also provide policy makers with new ideas. Farmers learning appropriate agricultural methods and implementing them would increase the hazelnut production and improve fruit quality. The expected goals of the project are to develop cooperation between the institutions, increase hazelnut quality and productivity, learn and adopt new farming methods, plant a pilot orchard, draft a hazelnut booklet, increase the communication between farmers, and share the best practices among three countries. At the end of the project, the outputs obtained will be disseminated to all hazelnut sectors.