The sustainability of olive orchard planting management for different harvesting techniques: An integrated methodology

Abstract

The globalization of the olive oil market has caused greater competitiveness in terms of olive oil quality and production costs and the main countries interested in olive growing, have introduced efficient planting design and horticultural techniques in order to meet these requirements. In this paper the sustainability of olive orchard planting management for different olive fruit-harvesting methods has been assessed on the basis of the data gathered by the Geographic Information System and processed using a Multi-Criteria Decision Making Analysis. In particular, three different agronomic scenarios have been analyzed and a specific cultivar has been considered in order to ensure the comparability of the results obtained. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis to assess the optimal harvesting methods for different agronomic scenarios by varying the olive grove dimension has been conducted. The final aim of this paper is to propose a new approach to discover the best harvesting technique on the basis of the type and the dimension of the olive grove.