Ancient wheats in adaptive crop production
Ancient cereals can be grown successfully on less favourable soils, even under extensive conditions, without the use of pesticides, and may also have higher nutritional values (protein, mineral, vitamin and bioactive component content) than modern bread wheat. They often contain different, more easily digestible, highly utilizable starch and protein structures. Some landraces of the”single-grain” wheat, einkorn, and the “double-grain” wheat, emmer, are also suitable for breadmaking, but most of them can be used as pasta, cakes or biscuits. Their yields are generally lower than those of modern wheats, grown under more intensive conditions, but they are capable of competitive yields and greater yield stability under unfavourable growing environments. They represent an important market opportunity for organic farmers and provide a valuable alternative for environmentally and health-conscious consumers and gastronomy lovers.
Activities
- In cooperation with our participating partners, we investigate the agronomic properties, yield stability and yield quality of ancient wheat landraces and other heterogeneous materials (mainly durum, emmer and einkorn populations) in small plot and on-farm experiments. Weed suppression ability, pest incidence and disease resistance are also evaluated.
- To promote local marketing and use, one of our key objectives is to help build a value chain; we conduct product development research and identify the crop quality characteristics and production needs of the most promising landraces and populations with respect to end-use purposes.
- We will continue participatory and evolutionary organic breeding, test our populations and selected lines with participating farmers.
We also test multiple-cropping models to further enhance yields and increase stress tolerance, e.g. in co-cultivation with legumes or other horticultural crops.
We also investigate the potential of winter grazing (double-usage model) with ruminants on winter-sown ancient wheat and durum wheat populations.
Expected results
- Under-utilized ancient wheat species, especially einkorn and emmer, are becoming more widely known and grown
- Production and cultivation of special-quality durum and emmer heterogeneous materials (populations) and breeding lines
- Development and practice-oriented sharing of examples of double-usage technologies
Evaluating multiple-cropping models and promoting their dissemination
- Expanding organic breeding activities and their role in Hungary
Contact person
Dr. Szilvia Bencze
Lead researcher
Biologist, Ph.D, English technical translator
The implementation of the research is supported by Hungarian National Rural Network (MNVH): www.videkihalozat.eu
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