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Landrace conservation
“A landrace of a seed-propagated crop can be defined as a variable population, which is identifiable and usually has a local name. It lacks “formal” crop improvement, is characterized by a specific adaptation to the environmental conditions of the area of cultivation (tolerant to the biotic and abiotic stresses of that area) and is closely associated with the uses, knowledge, habits, dialects, and celebrations of the people who developed and continue to grow it.” This definition takes into account several definitions (Harlan, 1975; Brush 1992, 1995; Papa 1996, 1999; Zeven 1998; Asfaw, 2000; Friis-Hansen and Sthapit, 2000; Negri, 2003, 2005; Camacho Villa et al., 2005; Saxena and Singh, 2006) and emphasizes the aspects of a long standing, unbroken and active management of landraces in a specific human context. It also underlines that a landrace belongs to the people who developed it and feel to be its owner. In this sense it answers the need for recognizing (and remunerating) the farmers’ rights that has been so often highlighted in International binding documents. Landraces are widely used in modern crop breeding (Esquinaz-Alcazar 1993), but they are also important for direct use in agriculture where they allow to: i) obtain typical products that are strictly linked with the territory and local people uses and traditions, ii) farm under difficult conditions iii) serve the interests of the organic agriculture sector where variable populations are often asked by farmers iv) maintain and develop traditions linked to a certain crop. Landrace diversity is threatened in all European countries (as well as in the entire world) (Negri et al., 2009). Those countries that are signatories to both the CBD and the International Treaty have an obligation and responsibility for their conservation. However, no conservation action is possible without inventorying extant landraces (i.e. without a sound informative base). This first inventory, possibly far to be complete yet, is aimed to support the development of landrace conservation activities in Italy and, serving as an example, in the entire Europe. It can also facilitate the promotion of products that are obtained from landraces as typical products that are strictly linked to a certain territory and the registration and marketing of landrace seed (see the Commission Directives 2008/62/EC 20 June 2008, 2009/145/EC 26 November 2009 and 2010/60/EU 30 August 2010 on “conservation varieties”) (Spataro and Negri 2013). Finally, it is an informative basis for those farmers who are looking for crop variable populations to be used in low input and organic agriculture.
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