FA1204 - Vegetable Grafting to Improve Yield and Fruit Quality under Biotic and Abiotic Stress Conditions

Due to limited availability of arable land, and water resources, the large use of fertilizers, and the high market demand for vegetables, cucurbits and solanaceous crops are frequently cultivated under unfavourable soil and environmental conditions. These include soilborne pathogens, salinity, thermal stress, drought, and heavy metals. These harmful conditions are magnified by the changing environmental conditions and the restrictive policies of agrochemical use. One way to avoid or reduce losses in production caused by adverse conditions in vegetables would be to graft them onto rootstocks capable of alleviating the effect of external stresses on the shoot. This Action aims to stimulate cutting-edge multidisciplinary collaborative research towards identifying and understanding how rootstock-mediated traits can improve vegetable crop yield and quality under biotic and abiotic adverse conditions. Sharing knowledge and enhancing scientific and technical collaboration will surely fill knowledge gaps in the area of vegetable grafting. This Action can also stimulate the wider commercial development and exploitation of this technique in Europe. The knowledge gained will be summarized in a book as a final output of this Action. Moreover, all data and information of this Action will be disseminated to the public through a dedicate website.