The development of these varieties represents a milestone for Andalusian olive growing and a new strategy for controlling the disease. Various trials have led to the identification of new genotypes that combine the desired characteristics of resistance, productivity and oil quality for future varieties.
The Andalusian Institute for Agricultural, Fisheries, Food and Organic Production Research and Training (IFAPA) today presented three new varieties resistant to olive verticillium wilt in Mengíbar (Jaén), a breakthrough that marks a milestone for Andalusian olive growing and a new strategy for controlling this disease.
The opening of the event, which brought together more than 100 professionals at the ‘Fundación del Olivar’, was attended by Soledad Aranda, the regional delegate for Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development for the Regional Government of Andalusia in Jaén; José Luis Agea, the councillor for Infrastructure at the Provincial Council of Jaén; Juan B. Barroso Albarracín, Director of the University Institute of Research on Olive Grove and Olive Oils (INUO) at the University of Jaén; and Francisco Manuel Sánchez, Director of the ‘IFAPA Venta del Llano’ centre.
Specifically, the three new varieties developed by IFAPA have been named ‘Urgavona’, ‘Castula’ and ‘Iliturgitana’, in reference to towns in Roman Baetica situated in areas close to where the main field trials leading to their registration were carried out. These will now be licensed to interested nurseries so that they can be made available to the sector as a further tool to assist those areas affected by this problem.
During the event, four expert presentations were given and a tasting session was held featuring the new varieties. In this regard, Javier López-Escudero, Professor in the Department of Plant Production at the University of Córdoba, spoke about the integrated control of olive verticillium wilt, whilst Raúl de la Rosa, a scientific researcher at the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture (IAS-CSIC) and a collaborating researcher at INUO, outlined to the audience the general objectives and methodologies of olive genetic improvement programmes.
For his part, Lorenzo León, a researcher at the ‘IFAPA Camino de Purchil’ centre, a collaborating researcher at INUO and, together with Raúl de la Rosa, a co-breeder of the three new varieties, outlined their main characteristics in his presentation. Finally, Francisco José Rabasco, Head of the International Projects and Transfer Service at IFAPA, addressed the issue of propagation and exploitation licences that will govern their commercial use.
Following the technical presentations, the characterisation and tasting of the oils from the new varieties were carried out by researchers from the ‘IFAPA Venta del Llano’ centre and INUO collaborating researchers Araceli Sánchez and Mari Paz Aguilera, as well as Brígida Jiménez, who has been director of the IFAPA centre in Cabra for almost forty years.
Genetic improvement of the olive tree by IFAPA
Olive verticillium wilt, caused by the soil-borne fungus Verticillium dahliae Kleb, has been the disease that has received the most attention in IFAPA’s genetic improvement work on olive groves, as it currently represents the greatest phytopathological problem in many areas, including major producing regions in Andalusia.
To date, only a limited number of traditional varieties have shown resistance to this disease, and most of them have certain agronomic limitations in terms of other traits of interest. There was therefore a need for new varieties that combine high levels of resistance with suitable agronomic characteristics for olive oil production.
For this reason, 20 years ago, IFAPA’s olive breeding programme launched a specific line of research dedicated to developing new varieties resistant to this disease. The procedure followed by the researchers involved crossing parental lines with known levels of resistance, initial selection of seedling plants based on agronomic traits of interest, and the evaluation of resistance to verticillium wilt across several stages under different experimental conditions: a growth chamber, artificially inoculated microplots and, finally, under natural field conditions.
In addition to resistance to verticillium wilt, the new varieties also had to meet certain requirements regarding other agronomic characteristics of interest, such as productivity, vigour, oil yield, and the composition and quality of the oils.
As a result of all this work, and following a joint analysis of the data collected on both disease resistance and agronomic traits, three new varieties have finally been selected which have consistently demonstrated high levels of disease resistance across the various trials, as well as other interesting agronomic characteristics.
This line of research has been made possible thanks to a long-term effort funded by various national and regional projects and with the collaboration of many professionals from IFAPA, other institutions, and various farmers and companies who have taken part in the field trials to achieve the final results. Furthermore, two doctoral theses have been completed as part of this research.
Source: Press office of IFAPA (20/05/2026)
