Traditional dark green zucchini continue to be the most popular vegetable produced and consumed in Italy. Fall is the key period for sowing in central and southern Italy, while the choice is increasingly veering towards varieties resistant to the New Delhi Virus (ToLCND), a disease spread by whitefly. The problem made its first significant appearance in 2016 and has since heavily affected Italian productions.
Syngenta Vegetable Seeds employed its genetics to mitigate the effects of the virus. FreshPlaza has talked about it with Giuseppe Circella, Product Development Specialist for cucurbits, who illustrates the state of the art of new resistant varieties.
SCVE21-0157
"Considering that the two main areas of interest in Italy are in Latina and Sicily, we can say we are pleased with the results we have obtained in the two years of diversified experimentation for the two areas, each boasting different soil and weather conditions. In Latina, we developed variety SCVE21-0157 and, in Sicily, SCVE21-0482".
SCVE21-0482
"Both areas hold fundamental importance for the protected cultivation of zucchini, as each features various thousands of hectares. The production world showed a lot of interest in the "157" variety in Latina and the "482" variety in Sicily. Syngenta Vegetable Seeds holds a responsibility towards local operators. These two varieties are the first of a wide range of options for the near future: they represent the fruit of the commitment of our R&D activity aimed not only at obtaining varieties that are resistant to the New Delhi virus but also ones that boast good performance thanks to plant architecture and quality of the fruit."
"As usual, we put the needs of producers at the center. The purpose is to obtain new resistant varieties that boast the same performance as the traditional ones the segment was used to before the virus with the addition of the resistance to ToLCNDV as well as to other diseases such as, e.g., powdery mildew. The direction taken by Syngenta Vegetable Seeds will satisfy not only the production sector but the entire Italian zucchini chain. The results and feedback collected cannot but please us."
For more information:
Syngenta Vegetable Seeds
https://www.syngentavegetables.com/it-it/portfolio/zucchini
https://www.syngentavegetables.com/it-it/search/sales-representatives