Dr. Giovanni Peratoner Laimburg 6 Phone: +390471969661 |
Laimburg Research Centre is the leading research institute for South Tyrol. Our research work emphasises practical applications in the pursuit of our mandate: to give agriculture in South Tyrol a competitive advantage by gaining a decisive head start through knowledge. On our research grounds and in our laboratories alike, we strive to find rapid solutions to immediate agricultural problems; at the same time, we are conducting basic research on specific focal topics in order to develop sustainable strategies for the future. In 1975, Laimburg Research Centre started out as a competence centre for the major crops in South Tyrol. The section mountain agriculture, covering the topics of forage production, arable crops and animal husbandry, was established in the late 1980s. The spectrum of competences of Laimburg Research Centre today includes fruit growing and viticulture, pest management und disease prevention, organic farming, specialised crops such as berries, stone fruit, vegetables and herbs, storage technologies and aquaculture. Over the last decades, Laimburg Research Centre has developed comprehensive experience in putting research results into practice. During the yearly meetings with its Local Advisory Board comprising more than 100 stakeholders representing all major organisations of the local agricultural sector, Laimburg’s annual research programme is discussed and aligned with farmer needs. This ensures efficient communication of innovation and research demand in the agricultural practice to the research centre as well as an effective transfer of research results to the farmers and farmer organisations.
Laimburg makes its research conclusions available to the local media and presents them at technical meetings and conferences on agriculture within the region. Then, in close collaboration with local advisory councils, the results are passed on to the agricultural sector at large. Through courses, lectures, seminars and publications, Laimburg Research Centre promotes specialised training and professional development in agriculture. In our laboratories, we carry out chemical analyses of soil and plants and analyse the components of agricultural products, such as flavour, taste and nutritive value, which eventually determine the quality of our food. Disease diagnosis is conducted at a dedicated laboratory, while the molecular biology laboratory explores the functions of plant genes and enables targeted breeding of new varieties using modern methodologies.