Ancient grains and stone mills, the centuries-old tradition is renewed in Sicily, once known as ‘the granary of Europe’. Thanks to the commitment and synergies between the University of Catania and the Simenza Association, which groups virtuous farmers and processors.
Ancient grains in Italy
By ‘ancient grains’ are meant those varieties of wheat with historical origin and distinct identity, not subject to genetic evolutions through crosses but locally adapted, thanks to traditional agricultural systems. (1)
Starting from the early 1900s these dynamic local populations, the result of selection work by farmers, gave way to varieties subject to genetic improvements. With the aim of increasing yields, in a historical period of severe wheat shortages, then more than ever essential to feed the populations. (2)
The genetic improvements have at the same time enhanced the inputs auxiliaries, fertilizers, and especially synthetic pesticides. To the appreciable and extraordinary increase in production, then, were associated, as ‘the flipside of the coin’, the reduction of biodiversity and the worsening of the ecological footprint of productions. From then on.
In Italy in 1927 291 wheat varieties were recorded, 98 of which were widely cultivated. Just over forty years later, 250 of them had already disappeared, that is 86%.
Ancient grains, the rediscovery
In recent years there has been a renewed interest in various local varieties of durum and soft wheat known as ‘ancient grains’, widely cultivated until the first quarter of the last century (when genetically improved varieties through selections and crosses took over).
The rediscovery of ancient grains is accompanied by an intense debate on their nutritional and health qualities within the agricultural and scientific communities. With widespread echo among the public opinion and consumers, increasingly attentive to the quality and healthiness of food. In addition to theintegrity of the supply chains and their rooting in the territories.
The demand has increased so significantly as to stimulate an exponential increase in cultivated areas in just a few years. According to an estimate by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the University of Catania, only in Sicily the areas cultivated with ancient grains have quintupled in the last 4 years. Reaching about 6,000 hectares, that is 2% of the total wheat-sown area in Magna Graecia.
Ancient grains, the Sicilian renaissance
In Sicily – thanks to the work of Universities, research institutions, and ‘custodian’ farmers – the germplasm of about fifty populations of durum and soft wheat has been preserved and recovered, representing part of the cereal biodiversity heritage available until the mid-last century.
These genotypes, although having lower yields compared to ‘modern grains’, exhibit some valuable traits of hardiness, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and nutritional and organoleptic quality of the kernels. About 20 varieties have thus been registered, an essential first step to ensure traceability of the ‘from seed to table’ supply chain.
The Sicilian renaissance is one of the objectives of the Simenza Association, established in 2016 to protect and enhance products of local biodiversity of agricultural interest. Simenza brings together most producers and processors of Sicilian ancient grains and provides them with agronomic and technical-scientific assistance, as well as representation useful to express shared values.
The perspective is to guarantee the integrity of a supply chain that can recover added value thanks to the processing of the raw material. Stone milling, the production of pasta, flours and high-quality semolina at zero km as a barrier to social desertification of the internal areas of the large island.
Paolo Caruso and Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) The seeds of ancient grains must be kept pure by custodian farmers, who have registered them in the conservation species section of the national biodiversity register. Their purity maintenance is controlled by CREA
(2) The work of Nazareno Strampelli, one of the pioneers of genetic improvement of herbaceous plants, is famous, who through breeding techniques breeding has developed about 150 varieties. See http://www.icar.beniculturali.it/biblio/pdf/strampelli/Strampelli_rivoluzione_verde.pdf
Paolo Caruso, agronomist, collaborates with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the University of Catania, Agronomy and Herbaceous Crops section. Researcher on Sicilian ancient grains.
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT – Food Times) and Égalité.
