Is Kiwi fruit a Sustainable product or an Environmental implicant? Well, the answer depends on the cultivation approach all over the world, before diving into scientific understanding, a short check on its production statistics is necessary.
1. Kiwi Global Production
According to FAO 2024 Crops and Livestock Products statistics, in 2022 about 85% of the world’s kiwi crop was produced in China, New Zealand, Italy, and Greece (1). The largest producer is China, which produces about 2.4 million tons per year, ahead of New Zealand, Italy, and Greece, in that order (2). Production quantities of Kiwi fruit by country in 2022 and production of Kiwi fruit: top 10 producers in 2022 with their statistics are depicted in Figure 1 and in Figure 2 respectively which were released by FAO as per 2024 Crops and Livestock Products records.
2. Gaining Commercial and Health Importance
Kiwifruit has an exceptionally high vitamin C content and is packed with other nutrients, such as dietary fiber, potassium, vitamin E, and folate, all of which are nutritionally relevant (3). It also contains a variety of bioactive components, such as a wide range of antioxidants, phytonutrients, and enzymes, all of which act to support healthy function and metabolism.
In the twentieth century, kiwifruit came a long way from being a wild species partially exploited by humans and became a commercial crop of international economic importance (4).
3. Influence on Environment
Planting kiwis has raised additional concerns about environmental issues and related resources. A substantial amount of agricultural components, such as pesticides, fertilizers, and fossil fuels, are primarily responsible for many countries’ high kiwifruit yields. These inputs also exacerbate the effects of pollution emissions and global warming as a result of rising carbon emissions. Planting kiwis may result in an undesirable effect on the area’s groundwater and air quality (5).
Kiwifruit’s mineral composition plays a significant role in determining its quality, especially in terms of its nutritional value. A mature kiwifruit needs about 150 kg Ν ha−1 year−1. For the orchard to be economically viable and produce an important amount of fruit both in terms of quantity and quality, N fertilization is essential (6). The crops that feed almost half of the world’s population are cultivated with synthetic N fertilizers. However, crops usually only use approximately half of the N fertilizer that goes to the soil; the remaining half either stays in the soil or is lost from fields into the atmosphere and water, creating implications for health, the environment, and the economy (7).
The European Union (EU) bears annual costs of between €70 billion and €320 billion due to excess nitrogen in the environment (8). It is evident that when N fertilizer is applied excessively compared to crop requirements, it can have detrimental effects on fruit quality during storage and after harvest. It also leaves behind significant amounts of residual nitrate N in the soil, which can readily seep into deep soil layers and have serious adverse effects on the environment (9). To get a high Kiwi fruit yield in some regions N fertilizer is being applied excessively in Kiwi cultivation which makes Kiwi production unsustainable in those regions (10).
Cultivating kiwi fruit in Mediterranean regions requires large volumes of irrigation water, which is characterized by high light intensities, low precipitation, and relatively significant vapour pressure deficits, under these growth circumstances, seasonal irrigation flows for kiwifruit can reach approximately 10-12 × 103 m3 ha−1 (1). Farmers over-water the Kiwi crops in order to get the larger fruits, this lowers their dry mass and compromises their preservation after harvest. Overwatering has several concerns, such as smothering plants and depleting groundwater.
Water management also has a significant impact on the production of kiwis. In Kiwi orchards, evapotranspiration rises with increasing water application levels and is influenced by water demand, water applied, irrigation technique, canopy cover, and water management (11).
4. Kiwi Sustainable Production
Improved nitrogen-use efficiency of fertilizers applied to orchards is another way kiwifruit farmers can reduce their carbon footprint. This might be accomplished by tracking and accounting for the amount of nitrogen in the soil that is available to plants, therefore more precisely matching fertilizer to plant requirements.
Although techniques are frequently linked through the hydrological cycle, innovative and more effective irrigation techniques that are part of sustainable irrigation adaptation in water-scarce regions should be implemented in terms of demand and supply enhancement of water management, given the decreased availability of water for agriculture and the likely consequences of climate change (12). The earning capacity of the orchard will be significantly impacted by the high yields of premium fruits produced through effective irrigation water management in kiwi production.
Creating production systems that mix methods from conventional and natural practices to achieve the maximum yields while having the least detrimental effects on the environment could be one way to find solutions. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a helpful strategy for determining the best possible trade-off between yields across diverse production systems, external inputs, and environmental concerns (13).
5. Future perspective
The government needs to expand its training resources and offer more assistance in the creation of contemporary farmer cooperatives. To raise awareness, a programme aimed at increasing society and individual awareness should be implemented. When it comes to establishing transitory social implications related to environmentally friendly technology (EFT), the cooperative itself should bear a greater portion of the blame. The Agricultural Extension Service should educate farmers about the methods and behavioral aspects of using electronic funds transfers, with a particular focus on facilitating a seamless transition (14).
The European Commission (EC) Agriculture and Rural Development is responsible for EU policy on agriculture and rural development and deals with all aspects of the common agricultural policy (CAP), recently released a list of potential agricultural practices that eco-schemes could support Sustainable agriculture (15), these practices might be useful for farmers, administrators, scientists, stakeholders, and the public.
In the EU there are several funding opportunities for farmers and organizations which are in the agriculture and food sector, these fundings could be useful for awareness programs, and establishing or incorporating new environmentally friendly technologies. WIISE Group is an expert in promoting and working with various food and agriculture actors including awareness campaigns and incorporating new environmentally friendly technologies. For EU and Italian research funding opportunities, contact us at projects@wiise.net.
Srikanth Vuppala
Footnotes
(1) Kokkora, M.; Koukouli, P.; Karpouzos, D.; Georgiou, P. Model Application for Estimation of Agri-Environmental Indicators of Kiwi Production: A Case Study in Northern Greece. Environ. – MDPI 2023, 10, doi:10.3390/environments10040069
(2) FAOSTAT, Crops and Livestock Products. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL/visualize
(3) Marta Strinati. Kiwi Benefits. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 22.6.2015
(4) Richardson, D.P.; Ansell, J.; Drummond, L.N. The Nutritional and Health Attributes of Kiwifruit: A Review. Eur. J. Nutr. 2018, 57, 2659–2676, doi:10.1007/s00394-018-1627-z
(5) Chen, Q.; Ma, X.; Hu, J.; Zhang, X. Comparison of Comprehensive Performance of Kiwifruit Production in China, Iran, and Italy Based on Emergy and Carbon Emissions. Ecol. Modell. 2023, 483, 110439, doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2023.110439.
(6) Zhang, X.; Davidson, E.A.; Mauzerall, D.L.; Searchinger, T.D.; Dumas, P.; Shen, Y. Managing Nitrogen for Sustainable Development. Nature 2015, 528, 51–59, doi:10.1038/nature15743.
(7) Sutton, M.A.; Bleeker, A.; Howard, C.M.; Erisman, J.W.; Abrol, Y.P.; Bekunda, M.; Datta, A.; Davidson, E.; Vries, W. de; Oenema, O.; et al. Our Nutrient World. The Challenge to Produce More Food & Energy with Less Pollution; Key messages for Rio+20; UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology: 342, Alterra – Duurzaam bodemgebruik, , 2013;
(8) Sutton, M.A.; Oenema, O.; Erisman, J.W.; Leip, A.; van Grinsven, H.; Winiwarter, W. Too Much of a Good Thing. Nature 2011, 472, 159–161, doi:10.1038/472159a
(9) Zhou, J.; Gu, B.; Schlesinger, W.H.; Ju, X. Significant Accumulation of Nitrate in Chinese Semi-Humid Croplands. Sci. Rep. 2016, 6, 1–8, doi:10.1038/srep25088.
(10) Lu, Y.; Chen, Z.; Kang, T.; Zhang, X.; Bellarby, J.; Zhou, J. Land-Use Changes from Arable Crop to Kiwi-Orchard Increased Nutrient Surpluses and Accumulation in Soils. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 2016, 223, 270–277, doi:10.1016/j.agee.2016.03.019
(11) Holzapfel, E.A.; Merino, R.; Mariño, M.A.; Matta, R. Water Production Functions in Kiwi. Irrig. Sci. 2000, 19, 73–79, doi:10.1007/s002710050003
(12) Nikolaou, G.; Neocleous, D.; Christou, A.; Kitta, E.; Katsoulas, N. Implementing Sustainable Irrigation in Water-Scarce Regions under the Impact of Climate Change. Agronomy 2020, 10, 1–33, doi:10.3390/agronomy10081120
(13) Müller, K.; Holmes, A.; Deurer, M.; Clothier, B.E. Eco-Efficiency as a Sustainability Measure for Kiwifruit Production in New Zealand. J. Clean. Prod. 2015, 106, 333–342, doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.07.049
(14) Sarkar, A.; Wang, H.; Rahman, A.; Qian, L.; Memon, W.H. Evaluating the Roles of the Farmer’s Cooperative for Fostering Environmentally Friendly Production Technologies-a Case of Kiwi-Fruit Farmers in Meixian, China. J. Environ. Manage. 2022, 301, 113858, doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113858
(15) Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development. Sustainable Agricultural Practices and Methods. 05/2024 https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/sustainability/environmental-sustainability/sustainable-agricultural-practices-and-methods_en
Srikanth Vuppala
Researcher, Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering, project manager in Wiise Srl benefit
