Morphological and biochemical behavior of the olive tree in semi-arid areas of Algeria

Abstract

In Algeria, as in many agricultural regions of Mediterranean countries, the cultivation of the olive tree (Olea europaea L.) has a very important place in sustainable development, the economy, and the fight against. And the Algerian government has implemented an olive tree planting program with an area of 900,000 ha by 2024. In this context, the objective of this work is to determine the variability of the morphological and biochemical parameters of 10 ten varieties of olive tree of Algerian origin “Hamra, Sigoise, Aimel, Longue de Meliana, Mission, Guergour, Manzanitte Agnoun, Chemllal and Sofiana ”having been the subject of an extension to the level of the semi-arid zone, carried out intensively, under localized irrigation, with controlled fertilizer inputs. The experiment started with on-site morphological measurements of tree height, trunk height and canopy circumference followed by laboratory analyzes by determining leaf area, relative water content and content in chlorophyll pigments. Graphical representations, comparisons of means, minimums and maximums, one-way analysis of variance on the one hand and PCA and AHC on the other hand were established between the studied parameters, in order to assess their variability. The results obtained showed that even if the olive tree is grown under the same growing conditions; varieties behave in different ways. These differences must be taken into account when choosing varieties in the plantation of mono-varietal or multi-varietal olive orchards.