Introduction of determination of optimum harvest date in Afghanistan. Sweet cherry: a case study

Abstract

In the last decade, Afghanistan has been under the political attention by several Institution and Organizations whose invested millions of dollars for the reconstruction of the country. Part of such efforts were focused on the agricultural sector, as the principal source of income of Afghanistan. Mainly, perennial horticulture represents the one of the most challenging opportunity for the developing economies of Afghanistan, and the high contribute of EU in such direction, shown significant results. However, the level of the export is still neglected and the reputation of Afghan’ products has lost the ancient brittleness. The generic low hygienic conditions and poor quality of the products are the primary cause of such situation. In this scenario, PHDP (Perennial Horticulture Development Project) first and ANHDO (Afghanistan National Horticulture Organization) then, tried to improve the quality of perennial horticulture crops. PHDP has, for the first time created a certification scheme for the production of certified perennial plants, ANHDO has the main goal of improving the quality of the fruit value chain of the principal crops in Afghanistan. In this study the first protocol for the determination of the Optimum Harvest Date (OHD) for Cherry var. Burlat is given, as a case study of the new course of Horticulture in Afghanistan.