On April 16, 2026 TETHYS participated in the study day “Kiwifruit in Calabria: Strategies and innovation to ensure quality and sustainability in the supply chain”, hosted at the Department of Agriculture of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria.
The initiative, promoted by the Calabrian University, brought together university professors, researchers, technicians and operators of the supply chain with the aim of take stock of the present and future of kiwifruit in Calabria, a crop which in recent years has taken on a increasingly strategic role for the regional territory.
During the morning, central issues for the sector were addressed: production quality, economic sustainability, agronomic management, technical innovation and ability to respond to new environmental criticalities.
Tethys will be present at the event with a talk on satellite monitoring.
For TETHYS they intervened Massimo Ambrogi And Lorenza Panunzi, with a report dedicated to the Monitoring kiwi crops through satellite imagery and to theusing data to support more efficient decisions in the field.
The interest registered during the meeting was particularly significant. Participation was broad, with a significant presence of local producers, a concrete sign of a sector that is looking operational tools to face a phase of increasing complexity.
Water and irrigation: an increasingly central issue for kiwifruit
Among the clearest signs that emerged during the day's work, one concerns the water issue. In many companies, the problem has not yet manifested itself in an emergency form, but There is a growing awareness that water availability and irrigation efficiency will represent a decisive turning point in the near future.
Kiwi is a demanding crop in terms of water and physiological requirements. For this reason, watering a lot does not necessarily coincide with watering well. Instead, it becomes essential to know:
• The real need of the crop at different seasonal times;
• the soil response to irrigation contributions;
• any excesses or deficiencies distributed within the same plot;
• the differences between zones apparently homogeneous but agronomically different.
In this scenario, continuous monitoring tools, such as ours WATCH, and water needs analysis, such as ours WATER, can offer a concrete advantage.
Kiwi: Production Opportunities and New Vulnerabilities
The attention found in Calabria confirms a trend that is now evident in other Italian areas: kiwifruit remains a crop of great economic value, but today requires a much more advanced management level compared to the past.
In recent years the sector has had to deal with problems such as Kiwi die-off, The radical stresses, the climate anomalies and the increasing pressure on water resourcesDifferent phenomena, but often linked by a common element: the need for try to read in advance what happens in the soil-plant-water system.
It is precisely on this ground that research, universities and technological innovation can create a new competitive balance for the supply chain.
The contribution of TETHYS
The participation in the event of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria is part of the path that TETHYS has been carrying out for some time on kiwi, with activities dedicated to vegetative state monitoring, to the water balance, to thesoil analysis and to the decision support for agricultural companies.
The goal is to provide clear, timely data and usable, transforming field observation into a concrete management tool.
