Dr Archbold Shares Horticulture in USA
On Saturday (19/6),
UB Faculty of Agriculture (FP-UB) held guest lecture with single speaker from
University of Kentucky USA, Dr. Douglas D. Archbold. The event is participated by
students of undergraduate program, in Widyaloka building. On the first session, the
speaker, who is a professor of Biochemistry and Horticulture Physiology, presents a
paper on "Fruit and Vegetable Production: An Overview".In the beginning of his
presentation, he describes the various recent trends on the horticulture industry in the
US. He gives an example on one of the known supermarket in the US, Walmart, in
which a vertical integration has been initiated between the farmer and Walmart as the
marketer. He also underlined the trend of organic farming, fresh cut market (salad in
bag) improvement, and the trend of small garden, which are marketed locally. In front
of the student, he presents some things which are commonly conducted on the
horticulture cultivation in the US.
Land preparations in the US are commonly conducted on October or November in the
form of row of soil heap for the vegetables. Other practices are utilizing drop
irrigation, fertilization using compost, which is covered with plastic sheets, utilization
of livestock manure, and weed control through harvest rotation and burning. Above
1.9 million hectares of farm field, which are spread in various states in the US,
Archbold stated, the industry gives revenue up to 16 Billion dollars, and the rest,
about 5 billions, is received through import. Some of the best vegetable commodities
are melon, paprika, garlic, and Sla leaves; asparagus, potato, chickpeas, corn,
tomatoes (fresh and processed), and big bean-chickpeas, peas, and beets (processed).
For fruit cultivation, Dr. Archbold introduced some special techniques, such as
planting with high density, the utilization of bars, and fattening. Some superior
commodities he describes are grapes, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry and
raspberry.[nok]