New Crops for the High Hills. Experience of Scientific Research and Dialogue with Farmers in the Northern Italian Apennines

Agriculture in the hilly and mountainous areas of the Oltrepò Pavese (province of Pavia) and the Colli Piacentini (province of Piacenza) is the main source of income for the local population. Unfortunately, in these “internal areas”, the worrying decline in the population in recent decades and its steady ageing have also had an impact on production, with the result that the agricultural area under cultivation has been halved. In addition, the numerous phenomena of hydrogeological instability due to superficial landslides and erosion of sloping surfaces drastically increase problems of these areas. The low profitability of the agriculture in these areas, combined with the weakness of the necessary infrastructural network, is one of the most likely causes. Increasing the profitability of local agriculture, while respecting the environment, is therefore probably one of the most important tools for mitigating the social degradation of these areas. The introduction of new, economically sustainable crops can only be proposed after a careful analysis of the crops to be proposed and a reasonable period of field trials on local farms. The necessary rigor of the experimental protocols, the processing of the data and, above all, the costs involved cannot be delegated to agricultural companies, but necessarily require the intervention of a research institute and public financial support. Quinoa was the crop of choice. The trial, which directly involved local farmers, identified the main problems with the crop and proposed solutions to address them.