A SPATIALLY EXPLICIT ANALYSIS TO IDENTIFY POTENTIALLY SUITABLE AREAS FOR HIGH OR SUPER-HIGH-DENSITY OLIVE CROPPING SYSTEMS IN BASILICATA - SOUTHERN ITALY.

Most of olive groves are designed for extensive (traditional) cropping systems (< 200 p ha-1), nowadays high density (HD) or super-high density (SHD) (up to 2500 p ha-1) are increasingly adopted because their ability to reduce production costs. Based on the higher number of trees per hectare and a considerable use of external inputs (e.g., agrochemicals, irrigation), the intensive olive plantations promise more substantial revenues derived from the mechanization of harvest and pruning and an early entry into production. This should provide local farms with the room to grow by reaching an economically sustainable paradigm, however, irrigation water availability and soil slope might limit the adoption of HD and SHD. Olive industry in Basilicata region (Southern Italy) is based on traditional cropping systems with olive groves also playing an important role in protecting soil from hydrogeological risks. In Basilicata there are irrigation networks providing water for agriculture underutilized in some areas because of land abandonment or land use with not-irrigated (less profitable) crops; however, most of lands are non-flat potentially limiting tree crop cultivations. In this work, we searched for identifying suitable areas for establishing new HD/SHD olive plantations within the Basilicata region mainly based on distance from irrigation source and soil slope. At this aim, we used various geo-environmental and anthropic layers in GIS environment. The obtained maps can represent a first knowledge base to support regional policy makers to conceive an appropriate agricultural strategy focused on fixing the lack of facilities (e.g., irrigation schemes) and open the way for innovation approaches able to guarantee adequate profitability to local farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]