Durum wheat is one of the largest cultivated crops across Mediterranean areas. The high demand for sustainable crop productions, especially concerning weed management, is driving the return to local landraces. In the present work, the in vitro allelopathic effects of the extracts of three durum wheat landraces (‘Timilia’, ‘Russello’ and ‘Perciasacchi’) and a modern variety (‘Mongibello’), obtained from three different plant parts (ears, stems and roots), were tested on seed germination (G) and mean germination time (MGT) of Portulaca oleracea L. and Stellaria. media (L.) Vill., two weeds commonly infesting wheat fields. In addition, the total polyphenol (TPC) and total flavonoid (TFC) content of extracts was determined. All extracts reduced G and increased MGT in both weeds compared to the control. The magnitude of phytotoxicity was strongly affected by the influence of genotype, plant part and extract dilution. Overall, the landraces ‘Timilia’ and ‘Russello’ showed the highest allelopathic effects, ear extracts were the most active, and the maximum extract dilution induced higher phytotoxicity. Extracts’ TPC and TFC corroborated these results. The findings obtained here encourage the use of local landraces as a source of allelochemicals and suggest that they could be left on soil surface or soil-incorporated after harvest for a possible weed control.

Climate change, recurrent economic and financial crises and food security issues are forcing society to look at the increasingly widespread use of “sustainable” production practices. These are often translated into innovations for businesses that are not always easily achievable other than through specific investments. This work sets out to assess the sustainability performance of organic farms, which represent a sustainable production model in terms of values, standards, practices and knowledge on the ground. The research was carried out in two geographical contexts (the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Sicily, Italy) which have certain environmental and socio-economic issues in common, particularly in productive sectors representative of organic agriculture. This was done with the help of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA, in the rest of the text) framework and social network analysis to study the sustainability performance of organic farms within non-structured local production systems in the form of formal enterprise networks that, on the contrary, operate with a recognized and common aim. The results demonstrate both their attainment of excellence and the existence of criticalities, thus, identifying routes to possible improvement.

The adoption of rare, traditional crops represents a good example of enhancing functional agrobiodiversity, not only to provide benefits for farmers but also for society as a whole. The study outlined in this paper aims to verify how and under local social-ecological conditions the combination of organic cereal farming and growing of durum wheat landraces can be profitably applied. Focusing on Sicily as one of the most developed cereal systems existing in southern Italy, the study deployed a comparison between data from the regional dataset by the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) and the data provided by the Association of farmers called Simenza. Thereafter, we used a System Dynamics Approach (SDA) for a better understanding of the main drivers which will most likely affect the profitability of the system in the medium and long term. The results clearly demonstrated how the durum wheat organic system under investigation might still develop under the push of an increasing relative economic advantage between standard varieties and landraces.

Wheat landraces are locally adapted populations that are suitable for low-input agronomic management and constraining pedo-climatic conditions. The productivity of landraces under high-input and optimal conditions is usually lower than modern wheat varieties. The present study compared the response of Sicilian wheat landraces and modern varieties to organic management, including organic fertilization, and conventional management, including mineral fertilization and chemical weed control, under rainfed condition and supplementary irrigation in a field trial conducted on a xerofluvent soil in a semiarid Mediterranean climate. Modern varieties were on average more productive than landraces, although certain landraces achieved comparable yields, in particular under organic management. The increase in grain yield under conventional management in comparison with the organic management was higher for modern varieties than landraces. The loss of productivity in rainfed conditions was lower for landraces compared to modern varieties. The grain quality traits were similar between landraces and modern varieties and in both cases the conventional management led to an improvement of the traits. These findings highlight the resilience and adaptability of traditional wheat landraces to low-input agricultural systems and offer valuable insights into improving the sustainability and productivity of wheat production in Mediterranean environments.

Wheat landraces are traditional varieties that have evolved over generations in response to local environments and farming practices and therefore exhibit remarkable adaptability to challenging climatic conditions and low-input farming systems. While the suitability of Mediterranean landraces to non-optimal climatic conditions during anthesis and grain ripening stage have been previously assessed, the role of photosynthesis efficiency and stomatal control on this resilience remains unexplored. This study aims to evaluate the relationship between grain yield and the post-anthesis flag leaf gas exchanges of Sicilian wheat landraces under irrigated and rainfed conditions and to compare these traits to modern durum (Triticum turgidum subsp. durum) and bread wheat (T. aestivum) varieties. Results indicate that wheat landraces respond to water availability similarly to modern varieties, reducing stomatal conductance by 26.8% and net photosynthesis by 18.1% under rainfed conditions, resulting in 10.6% lower grain yield compared to irrigated conditions. However, some landraces demonstrate comparable or even higher flag leaf net photosynthesis rates and lower transpiration levels, leading to higher yields in both rainfed and irrigated conditions, confirming their value as a source of gene pool for wheat breeding programs in drought-prone Mediterranean regions.