After Wheat: Revitalizing Sicilian Agriculture through Heritage Tourism

Abstract

Sicily was once the breadbasket of the Roman Empire, but by the 20th century Sicilian wheat production had declined dramatically due to deforestation and changing economic, political, and climactic conditions. Alternatives to wheat production are now being actively promoted in order to revitalize Sicily's rural economy. These include the Via dei Borghi, an ambitious project proposed by Sicily's Agency for Agricultural Development (ESA) to promote “slow tourism” through the island's interior using the appeal of traditional agricultural heritage. The borghi at the heart of the project are rural centers associated with the Fascist “Battle for Wheat” that were designed to hobble the traditional agricultural systems that ESA is valorizing. The result is an ironic but creative requalification of the borghi that incentivizes farmers to focus on diverse and unique local products, providing one answer to the question of what to produce after wheat.

Landscape Greening of Agricultural Sightseeing Tourism Park

“…While carrying out the agricultural activities, it also showed the local customs and characteristics to the tourists, and met the long-sufficient demand of the people for the natural life in rural areas. In the narrow sense, sightseeing agriculture refers to combining agricultural processing procedures, display of rural product technology, and appreciation of agricultural landscapes as a form of tourism content based on the comprehensive utilization of agricultural resources, and a certain reasonable layout and layout of agricultural production regional space and use [5].…”

A Landscape in Transitions: Guletta, a Multiperiod Settlement along the Mazaro River in Western Sicily

“…From the beginning of the Roman period, the number of recorded settlement, mortuary , and associated materials increases significantly on both sides of the river. The remains of many of their successors, in the form of Arab period rahals (villages) and later rural central fortified farmhouses (Dado 2004 ; Mosca 2016 , 6–7; Samuels 2012 , 48; 2017 , 92; Schneider and Schneider 1976 , 67), often stand in similar locations to their early historic counterparts (Dado 2004 ; Rotolo and Civantos 2013 ; cf. Johns 1992 , 416).…”