New biological phytosanitary treatment for strawberry culture: Fortuna variety

¹ Research team of Agriculture and Aquaculture Engineering. FPL. Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tetouan, Morocco
² UPL Limited, Company, Casablanca, Morocco
³ Farm school Association BAYTI, Morocco
⁴ MESSEM Company, Larache, Morocco
⁵ Research Team Biotechnologies and Biomolecular Engineering. FSTT. Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tetouan, Morocco

^* Corresponding author: a.bakrim@uae.ac.ma

Abstract

Foods from organic farming are becoming more popular. Despite this, the conflicting facts and data on the yield, quality, and cost of organic farming led us to undertake this work, which is focused on the production of organic strawberries. First, we conducted a study on the agronomic outcomes of strawberry production after using a novel line of organic phytosanitary products (ProNutiva). Second, we conducted an economic analysis to assess whether this system would be financially profitable. The experiment focused on the results of two organic farming plots: the “ProNutiva” plot and the control plot. The analysis of the results obtained showed that at the level of the plot treated with “ProNutiva”, the number of mites and aphids was low, as was the number of leaves attacked by the moths. We noted a high leaf-fruit ratio and a good level for quality parameters. The deterioration of the fruits of the ProNutiva plot is slow compared to that of the control plot. Finally, good yields were noted. Indeed, for economic analysis, we noted that organic farming produces 30% lower yields than conventional farming, but it is more profitable with earnings of 19,939.84 US$/ha compared to 7,314.71 US$/ha for conventional farming.