* Corresponding author: gaetano.laghetti@ibbr.cnr.it

Cereal landraces, selected over the time by local farmers and well adapted to the climatic conditions of the Apulia region (southern Italy), are threatened by genetic erosion/extinction, as a result from the gradual replacement with modern high-yielding cereal cultivars.

For these reasons, within the program PSR Puglia 2014-2020, Op. 10.2.1, the Apulian region is funding the project “Biodiversità dei cereali antichi pugliesi per la sostenibilità e la qualità (SAVEGRAIN-CER)”. This project is coordinated by the Institute of Biosciences and Bio-Resources of the National Research Council (IBBR-CNR) and is carried out in partnership with public research Institution, Universities, and private companies.

The main goals of SAVEGRAIN-CER are: i) to collect and to store the Apulian cereal landraces; ii) to perform morphological, genetic and bio-agronomic evaluation; iii) to exploit the typical end-product obtained with this local germplasm. The activities also include the collection of historical documents validating the relationship between the recovered landraces and their areas of cultivation.

Over 100 cereals, including common and durum wheat, landraces were collected in different habitat and areas outside and inside protected areas, where traditional agricultural practices still survive. The collected germplasm was stored ex situ in the Mediterranean Germplasm Seed Bank of IBBR-CNR and safeguarded on farm by custodian farmers.

The preliminary results of the project show the potential use of landraces to increase the development of sustainable agriculture.