Appropriate mechanical harvesting systems for different types of olive orchards

Abstract

In the last decades olive growers spent a substantial part of their gross return to face high costs of manually cultural practices, due to shortage of manpower. Olive crop is in a critical situation due to low product price and high production costs. In order to face the problem it is mandatory to increase competitiveness on the global market, reducing costs and improving fruit quality. Low mechanization level penalizes the sector. Olive harvesting mechanization systems allow achieving these goals [Amirante, Tamborino 2012]: costs – reducing manpower needs and quality – better work rates make possible to harvest in the optimal harvest timing. For mechanical harvesting, different types of olive orchards must be considered: (a) traditional (<150 trees per hectare), (b) high density olive orchards (300 to 400 trees per hectare) and (c) hedgerow olive orchards (1000 to 2000 trees per hectare). For each olive orchard type, an appropriate harvesting system is required.