Trials performed in France provide fresh confirmation of the quality and efficiency of Arrigoni solutions, not just for active protection against insects and diseases but also for shading crops and thus saving water. The results of a three-year trial conducted at Biltzheim in the Haut-Rhin département furnish concrete proof that the Arrigoni Prisma® range is the most effective and efficient in terms of the shading factor ensured for crops (tomato first and foremost) thus reducing the need for watering by up to 50%. The temperature inside greenhouses protected with Prisma® was found to be up to 10 degrees Celsius lower than in the control tunnel.
The agriculture of the future will have to respond to ongoing climate change and rising global temperatures. Given this situation, the shading of greenhouses is a technique that is becoming a necessity over larger and larger areas. On the one hand, the adoption of aids of this kind reduces water use and physiological stress on existing crops. On the other, shading helps to keep the temperature below a critical threshold and optimise working conditions inside greenhouses.
The trial was performed during 2022 as part of the Acse programme, sponsored by the Government, ADEME (the French Agency for Ecological Transition), Grand Est and Climaxion (the ADEME programme which supports energy transition and the circular economy).
The study conducted at Biltzheim in 2022 assessed the efficacy of new whitewashing products, which were then compared with the Arrigoni Prisma® range. Significantly, the trial took place during the hottest, driest summer ever, not only in France but also in Italy, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, as stated in the “State of the Climate in Europe 2022” report published by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the EU’s Earth Observation Programme, Copernicus.
“Prisma®”, the study confirms “was found to be the most beneficial method: it reduces peak temperatures by almost 10°C compared to an unshaded tunnel. It is quick and easy to install and, unlike whitewashing products, it minimises the labour otherwise required for continual whitewashing procedures.” Moreover, the figures that emerged during the trial reveal that Prisma® may actually be twice as effective as a whitewashing product. “The temperature reduction in whitewashed tunnels”, the same study states, “is about 5-7 degrees depending on the tunnel.” In other words, well below the 10 degrees provided by the Arrigoni Prisma® range.
“We are delighted,” underlines Arrigoni CEO Paolo Arrigoni, “with the findings of this entirely independent test. It proves that our investments in materials and the latest technologies for crop protection produce genuine proactive solutions, able to deliver effective responses even in more and more extreme situations. Prisma® is an emblematic example, since it is at least a medium-term investment, having a guaranteed lifetime of up to five years.”
At the latest Eima towards the end of 2022, Arrigoni already presented the results of a study of shading and the consequent water saving performed from April to October 2022 in the Group’s test field at Putignano, near Bari. This trial was conducted on the Fructus®, Protecta® System, Prisma®, Robuxta® and Arricover® ranges, in other words, all the most widely used coverings produced by Arrigoni. Prisma®’s efficacy was also clearly proven in these tests, with water savings on crops of between 40 and 50% compared to the open field.
