Abstract

Honey production in Chile faces a considerable loss of competitiveness, as a result of a significant reduction due to years of drought, historical processes of deforestation and changes in the use of forest to agricultural land. In recent years, climate change is affecting the phenology of sclerophyllous forest species, the flowering window and the production of floral buds of Quillay, species of great interest for the production of monofloral "Premium" honey of high commercial value. The technological innovation aims to increase the production of honey per unit area annually through the increase of the floral window of Quillay in the central zone of Chile, through the establishment of clonal orchards with different provenances selections of the geographic range of distribution of the species between the regions of Coquimbo and Bio Bio. The clones will be selected for their high flowering, antioxidant content and rate of rooting or grafting. The orchards will be intensively managed as fruit species to maximize the production of nectar and pollen and other honey species from the sclerophyllous forest will be planted, which will complement the floral window of the quillay, generating to the bee producer other income derived from the harvest of bifloral or multifloral honeys, but of known botanical origin. The genetic rankings of the Quillay clones will be obtained from open pollination progenies.