CATANIA – A bill is under discussion in the Senate establishing the figure offarmer as “guardian of the environment and the territory”. The bill (first signatory Gianpaolo Vallardi, Lega) aims to recognize with this title, “single or associated agricultural entrepreneurs and cooperative societies in the agricultural and forestry sector” who will deal – in short – with the maintenance of the conservation and enhancement of local crop varieties, the breeding of animal breeds, the cultivation of local plant varieties, the conservation and protection of monumental plant and tree formations, the fight against the abandonment of agricultural activities and the consumption of the soil. So far the intentions of the bill that regulates a sector already characterized by such initiatives in all regions.
In Sicily, in fact, “custodian farmers” already exist under a 2016 law «But it is a related figure – he specifies Paolo Caruso, Director of “Seed”, the Association of farmers, custodians, technicians, researchers that enhances Sicilian agricultural biodiversity together with traditions, know-how, gastronomic culture and linguistic expressions – to those who are involved in registering certain plant species, for example ancient grains, in the national register of biodiversity of conservation species, and they can also sell their seeds, while this recent bill concerns the territory more generally, two absolutely different things ».
Paolo Caruso director of the “Simenza” Association
The fact remains that the common denomination for two different (actually “parallel”) activities, if on the one hand it can cause confusion, on the other hand it confirms the interest on these issues, that is to say a new agroecological, non-industrial, non-chemical agriculture subject to multinational food empires.
The process to become a custodian farmer in Sicily works like this. The farmer cultivates a specific plant species and decides to submit an application (to become a “keeper” of that species) to the regional agriculture department that has set up a commission made up of researchers, university professors, technicians of theDepartment of Agriculture etc. etc. The “dossier” must include historical information relating to the “candidate” species which must be witnessed with documents dating back at least 50 years earlier. Then there is a whole series of morphological, agronomic, technical parameters to be respected and the photos and seeds of that species must also be part of the application. The Create (Council for research in agriculture and the analysis of the agricultural economy) will then verify that they are the same ones sent to the commission. If all the documentation is ok and the commission gives a positive opinion, the “dossier” is sent to the Ministry of Agricultural Policies which “graduate” the farmer “guardian” of that particular plant species, making it official in the Gazzetta.
«When in Sicily we talk about custodian farmers – Caruso specifies – we substantially identify those who cultivate ancient grains because in this register of biodiversity only varieties of ancient grains have been entered, of vegetable and vegetable species there are still none. For ancient grains – adds Caruso – now they have to be shipped, but since the lockdown has taken place the commission has not met anymore and it is not clear why since it was already meeting remotely in the pre-covid era. I know farmers who have not had any response to their requests ».
Yet today there is a lot of talk about conscious agriculture, of new models of rural development, of sustainability, of repopulation of inland areas, a “guardian farmer” would represent a symbol, especially in a post-pandemic perspective, all the more so in Sicily where the figure of biodiversity – more than in any other region of ‘Italy – is the only real “weapon” to compete on the agri-food markets. Sicily agricultural biodiversity, in fact represents about 25% of the entire plant biodiversity still existing in Europe and preserves a large number of edible species of vegetables, fruit and wild plants.
«The guardian farmer is the only system – argues Caruso – that protects producers and consumers. If you find at the supermarket a kg of flour declared as “ancient grains” which costs 1.30 cents, know that it is an impossible price, even if you calculate that you have the entire supply chain “at home” that is produced by a farmer who is also a miller. distributor, dealer etc etc. Just do the math: if the large-scale distribution focuses on a 30% markup, if a kg of certified seed a producer does not buy it for less than 1.60 euros per kg, if the yield of a grain like Timilìa is, at milling, by 70% (the lowest among the ancient grains), if we consider the transport to the mill, the cost of milling, packaging, promotion, distribution, and so on, a good product, on average, cannot cost consumer less than 2 euros, 2.20 per kg. If it is found at a lower price, at best there is some natural polluted product (other species of wheat accidentally ended up in the threshing ed.), Or – as it happened, the durum wheat batch is mixed with Canadian soft wheat, but the only defense weapon for consumers are the controls of the fraud repression inspectorate, of the Mipaaf unfortunately the controls are not so frequent ».
Instead the custodian farmer is the only one who can certify in black and white that that flour is obtained only from that species of wheat of which it is the “keeper” registered in the register of biodiversity, a very important guarantee for consumers.
The map in Sicily of the farmers who keep ancient grains
“If this figure hadn’t been established – recalls the director of Simenza – the ancient Sicilian grains would have been lost within 3/4 years. Once the people who dealt with grain growing in Sicily when they saw a “spurious” ear in the middle of the field, eliminated it by selecting, in fact, the best ears to send to the mill. Today, fortunately, this practice no longer exists and the natural pollution of wheat species occurs naturally fed by the threshing that goes around from one field to another. If the thresher has not been cleaned well, which always happens, there are seeds that “pollute” the ears of the other field where another variety is grown. Keep in mind that 1000 wheat seeds weigh just 40 grams. In 2016, I toured Sicily visiting about forty companies and collected all the varieties that were grown. In a square meter of land there are from 200 to 300 ears and I had to collect a sample of 100 ears. Sometimes in order to collect 100 of the same variety I used to go up to 30 meters. This is to say that a custodian farmer to certify his wheat must do an immense job to limit the threshold of “polluted” ears to 3 per thousand, a percentage beyond which Crea rejects the game with the result that he can no longer sell it. A kg of pure breeding seed is worth 1.60 cents, so if a kilo of flour costs 1.30 euros I wouldn’t buy it … ». Every year the caretaker must submit to Crea the application for “field control of seed crops”. The control is used to verify the carrying out of the maintenance work in purity of the variety registered in the conservation register so that it can be used as a seed.
Therefore, farmers (custodians) bear high costs to produce certified seeds and it is also for this reason (together with the strict rules to be respected) that not many Sicilian farmers have become “guardians”, in total 54, and the denomination, we repeat, is currently limited only to producers of wheat (hard and soft ).
«The way I see it, the custodian farmer represents a first step. However you think we can be “competitive” on ancient grains. Ancient grains are a kind of metaphor, what we need to approach certain markets, the Sicilian farmer cannot think of competing with Canadian wheat, just as he cannot think of doing it with Egyptian artichokes or Tunisian oranges. The only solution is to start with the products of our biodiversity. What gives income is the black lentil of the Enna hills or that of Villalba, the cottoia bean from Modica or the Cosaruciaro bean from Scicli, just to give some examples. The winning model is that of wine, this is what agriculture must replicate at least in the initial phase of a path of change. If you want to stay on the market, the mentality has to change. Certainly a few steps have been taken for the regional councilorship but there is still a lot to do.