Young Mind Award: Jose Maria Vadillo

José María Vadillo Hurtado won the ISHS Young Minds Award for the best oral presentation at the XVI International Symposium on Processing Tomato, which was held virtually in Argentina in March 2022. His paper was entitled: "Development of a methodology to characterize the nitrogen nutritional status of open field processing tomato by means of fast indicators".

Jose Maria received his BS degree in Agricultural Engineering at the University of Extremadura in 2017. After graduation, he began his double master’s studies in Agronomic Engineering and Agri-food Chain Management Engineering at the University of Cordoba until 2020. He is currently a student of the Food Science PhD programme at the Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas de Extremadura (CICYTEX).

His research focuses on the evaluation of the response of processing tomato to nitrogen fertilisation under the supervision of Dr. Henar Prieto and Dr. Carmen Giménez. The region where he works (Vegas del Guadiana) is one of the most important processing tomato production areas in Spain. This area is immersed in the Nitrate Vulnerable Zones according to european regulations. It is very difficult to find a balance between production and environmental conservation. It is therefore important that researchers generate information and tools that enable farmers to produce in an environmentally friendly way without harming their yields.

At the World Processing Tomato Congress, Jose Maria presented some of his research on the relationships between rapid measurements of chlorophyll and nitrate content in sap versus the reference indicator Nutritional Nitrogen Index (NNI). The final aim is to know the threshold values of these quick measurements to help technicians and producers to monitor the nutritional status of their crops in an easier, faster and safer way. This will help to reduce production costs for farmers and reduce groundwater contamination by nitrate leaching. Jose María presented these relationships by identifying these thresholds for each phenological moment of the crop.

The full paper of his research will be published alongside the other research work presented during the symposium in a special edition of Acta horticulturae.