In the world lentil is grown on more than 3 million hectares and is one of the most important, lowcost, food source of protein. In Italy lentil has been cultivated since ancient times, but in the last decades its cultivation has been confined to marginal areas, small islands and hilly, mountainous areas of central and southern Italy. Local varieties are still common and are often greatly appreciated for their taste and cooking qualities. Several accessions from the Santo Stefano di Sessanio area, Abruzzo Region, were collected and phenotypically and genotypically characterized in order to look for the existing variability within and between populations. Image analysis of seeds was also used. Populations grown in Santo Stefano di Sessanio and in the neighbouring area basically share most of their characteristics. However, some of the accessions anonymously gathered from the local market were shown to be different from those collected from farmers. The paper reports and discusses how this local product needs be characterized and promoted in order to avoid fraud that could negatively affect the local economy and put valuable, adapted, genetic resources at risk of erosion.

One hundred and six landraces belonging to 7 species of the Triticeae tribe were collected in central Italy by DBVBA (Perugia University), DIBIAGA (Ancona University) and ARSSA (Abruzzo Region Agricultural Development Agency) in different individual and joint missions. A few accessions were supplied by private and other public organisations. Triticum dicoccum Schubler is the most widespread species, followed by T. aestivum L., T. monococcum L., T. spelta L., T. turgidum var. durum Desf., Secale cereale L. and Hordeum vulgare L. Besides the presence of landraces reproduced by farmers over generations, information related to on-farm management and to qualitative/organoleptic traits as well as information related to their local names, uses, traditions and social context was gathered during the missions. The majority of the accessions was characterised by morphological and phenological traits and molecular markers. This work shows the presence of morpho-phenologic and genetic differences among landraces and the importance of some species in the agricultural systems and food customs of the investigated area. Particularly for emmer three well distinct landraces are present, "Farro Italia Centrale", "Farro della Garfagnana" and "Farro Italia Meridionale". Other interesting and traditional landraces are the "Solina" common wheat in Abruzzo and the "Orzo mondo" naked barley in Marche. Most of the populations are still cultivated in marginal lands and under low input or organic agronomic conditions; nevertheless, in many cases, they are found near modern varieties in conventional agriculture systems. Moreover, the in situ (on-farm) conservation of Triticeae landraces in central Italy is strictly linked to elderly farmers.

In order to evaluate and identify the antioxidant properties and the phytochemical characteristics, as well as the role of the genetic background and the different fruit parts in the definition of fruit quality, we characterized the existing germplasm through nuclear simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and evaluated the genetic divergence between ancient S. Giovanni varieties (Pyrus communis L.) and different types of grafting in relation to some variables of fruit quality. On the peel and pulp of pear varieties, the contents of flavanols, flavonols, and hydroxycinnamic acids as well as total antioxidant capacity were assessed. Their role in plant defences was confirmed by a significantly higher amount in the peel (206.66±44.27, 48.45±13.65, and 31.11±11.94 mg/100 g, respectively) of S. Giovanni pears than in the pulp (71.45±34.94, 1.62±0.83, and 17.05±5.04 mg/100 g, respectively). Data obtained using capillary analysis of SSR indicate unequivocally that the four samples of San Giovanni varieties can be divided into 3 different genetic groups. Cultivar and the different parts of the fruit can exert an action in the definition of the quality product. The use of local varieties and ecotypes can be considered a valid tool to improve food quality and at the same time to support local agrobiodiversity.

The importance of genetic diversity in cultivated varieties for organic and low-input agriculture has attracted increasing attention in recent years, with a need to identify relevant sources of diversity and strategies for incorporating diversity in plant breeding for organic systems. However, the regulatory system in many countries, particularly in the European Union, restricts the varieties available to farmers to those registered in an official catalogue, and most countries require varieties to go through official tests under conventional management, which has resulted in a lack of suitable varieties available to organic farmers. This study characterized a sample of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) landraces, historic varieties and varietal mixtures currently of interest to organic farmers in a diverse range of organic conditions on farms in Italy, France and the Netherlands. These varieties were assessed for individual plant and spike characteristics and compared to modern registered wheat varieties grown under the same on-farm conditions. Significant differences in mean values were found among varieties for many plant and spike traits, as well as significant variety-by-environment interactions. There were often similar levels of intra-varietal variability between farmer and modern varieties, indicating that the strong selection for genetic homogeneity to meet regulatory criteria has little impact on the phenotypic variability of certain traits when assessed on-farm. Several farmer varieties had high values of traits related to productivity outside their region of origin, which underlines the need for experimentation with diverse types of varieties in order to find and develop appropriate varieties for organic systems.

Since management practices profoundly influence soil characteristics, the adoption of sustainable agro-ecological practices is essential for soil health conservation. We compared soil health in organic and conventional fields in the Abruzzi region (central Italy) by using (1) the soil biology quality (QBS) index (which expresses the level of specialisation in soil environment shown by microarthropods) and (2) microarthropod diversity expressed by Hill numbers. QBS values were calculated using both the original formulation based on only presence/absence data and a new abundance-based version. We found that organic management improves soil biology quality, which encourages the use of organic farming to maintain soil health. Including arthropod abundance in QBS calculation does not change the main outcomes, which supports the use of its original, speedier formulation. We also found that agricultural fields included in protected areas had greater soil health, which shows the importance of the matrix in determining agricultural soil health and highlights the importance of land protection in preserving biodiversity even in managed soils. Finally, we found that soil biology quality and microarthropod community structure are distinctly influenced by certain physical and chemical characteristics of the soil, which supports the use of microarthropods as biological indicators.