Effect of edapho-climatic conditions on fruit productivity, yield and olive oil quality in olive orchards (Olea europaea L.): case of a semi-arid region

The objective of the present work is to evaluate the relationship between the edapho-climatic conditions of the cultivation environment and the variability of olive productivity, yield, and quality of olive oil in orchards of the Moroccan Picholine (PM) population variety (Olea europaea L.). This work was carried out on different agricultural territorial units (agroecosystems) of the Beni Mellal-Khenifra region with a semi-arid climate during four agricultural seasons (2016/2017 to 2019/2020). For this purpose, the relevant agronomic and agro-biochemical parameters were studied, namely the stage of maturity, fruit and olive oil yields and quality indices. The data treatments of the results were performed according to descriptive and affiliated statistics by analysis of variance (ANOVA). We have found significant correlations (according to Pearson's R) between agroecosystems, particularly for weight of crude olives produced per hectare and temperature (R= 0.803), olive yield and humidity (R= 0.654), olive oil yield and temperature (R= 0.837), olive oil richness and humidity (R= -0.622), as well as the qualitative characteristics of the extracted oils, through the levels of free acidity and peroxide value (R = 0.467). These results confirm that in the studied semi-arid environments, the properties of the biotope of the cultivated olive groves, combined with the interannual agroclimatic variability, effectively influence the productivity of the olive trees, the oil production and the chemical and organoleptic quality of the extracted olive oil