Abstract
Landraces are an agri-food and historical-cultural heritage but are undergoing losses worldwide. Italy is taking action to counteract this problem by following European guidelines. One of the most important measures is the Agrobiodiversity National Register (ANR), but 12 Italian regions currently appear without any landraces and around 80% of the landraces listed are trees, with less detailed data on herbaceous species. The aim of this study is to investigate the situation for Italian herbaceous landraces preserved on farms (in situ) by merging and analyzing data contained in the main databases on plant agrobiodiversity in Italy. Data were georeferenced, organized by botanic families and Italian regions, and analyzed by GIS and R. A total of 1615 herbaceous landraces were found (versus the 416 recorded in the ANR). Poaceae, Fabaceae, and Solanaceae together comprise 70% of all herbaceous landraces and are mostly preserved/grown in areas between 150 and 800 m a.s.l. Some hilly and sub-mountain areas of the Apennines and the Alps are hotspots of herbaceous landraces due to anthropic and environmental factors. The results of this research will be useful to enrich the ANR and trigger actions of characterization, conservation, and promotion of these plant resources.
Highlights
The safeguarding of agrobiodiversity is an extension of the concept of biodiversity conservation that refers to the varieties/races of plant, animal, and microbe species of agricultural interest, as well as crop wild relatives
The catalogues created by the Perugia and Milan Universities provided a considerable amount of data, testifying to the success of projects led by research centers, since the survey activity of both was financed by regional, national, or supranational (EU) funds
The study allowed the creation of an updated database of 1615 herbaceous landrace varieties, meaning that the total number of Italian herbaceous landraces identified could increase by about 290%
Summary
The safeguarding of agrobiodiversity is an extension of the concept of biodiversity conservation that refers to the varieties/races of plant, animal, and microbe species of agricultural interest, as well as crop wild relatives. The latter have contributed to crop domestication for millennia, providing important genetic resources adapted to the environment and climate changes and can represent a valuable resource for innovative lower-input agricultural systems [1]. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
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