Thanks to the fig tree, the marginal saline lands are recovered
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There fig cultivation, currently in decline in Italy but economically very profitable, is the optimal answer to recover land otherwise lost to agriculture. The project has come to this conclusion “Ficus caricaan ancient species with great prospects” funded and led by theUniversity of Pisa who deepened his knowledge of this plant thanks to a team of geneticists, chemists, plant physiologists, entomologists, arborists and sensory analysts from the Department of Agricultural, Food and Agro-environmental Sciences.
“Since ancient times and even today, especially in the southern countries of the Mediterranean basin, the fig tree has provided an important staple food also thanks to its great productivity which lasts up to 50 years with an annual production of around 40-100 kilos per plant – explains Barbara Conti project coordinator at Agi – However, in Italy fig cultivation is in sharp decline: in 1960 it occupied 60,000 hectares, today only 2,000, which produce 1% of world production and all this against a constant growth of marginal saline soils which they are in our country today over 400 thousand hectares. The relaunch of this crop is therefore strategic also in consideration of the 15th objective of the United Nations Agenda 2030 which aims to protect, restore and promote sustainable land useespecially forests, swamps, mountains and drylands”.
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The researchers from the University of Pisa worked for two years, from 2020 to 2022, succeeding in sequencing the fig genome with an innovative method that allowed them to investigate the performance of this plant in conditions of high salinity. The results thus confirmed that it is an ideal crop for the recovery of marginal saline soils. There soil salinity in fact, it does not determine a variation of the total sugars and of the main components of the fruit. On the contrary, the increase in the endogenous level of salicylic acid in the fruits of plants subjected to saline stress would suggest a primingi.e. one adaptive strategy which improves the plant’s defensive capabilities.
“We were able to obtain the sequence of the paternal and maternal chromosomal kits and in the genome we identified the genes involved in the accumulation of sugars in the fruit – says Professor Barbara Conti – These genes were found to be differently expressed in the fruits of plants subjected to high salinity even resulting in no significant changes in the total content and its main components”.
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Finally, the project also included the study on Aclees taiwanensis, a species of beetle harmful to figs and recently introduced in Italy, very similar to the palm weevil. This part of the research has allowed us to clarify some hitherto unknown aspects of the biology of this insect, useful for planning an effective future control.
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