The evolution of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) cultivation in Italy and its effects on the survival of autochthonous populations

At the beginning of the 20th Century Italy was one of the most important producers of lentil in the Mediterranean basin. Presently, this pulse is mainly cultivated in marginal areas of Central and Southern Italy and in some small islands. As a result of the reduced attention devoted to lentil, several autochthonous populations have disappeared together with the traditions related to their cultivation. Moreover, how long the cultivation of those still grown today will continue is unpredictable. Governmental and local associations have a time window for anticipating a possible epoch when to grow these landraces will be no longer profitable. In the last decades the Germplasm Institute of the National Research Council (Bari, Italy) and the Institut für Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung (Gatersleben, Germany) have collected 63 lentil populations in Italy, presently stored ex situ. The evaluation of this collection has shown the existence of an appreciable morphological, agronomic and genetic diversity that could foster future breeding programmes. It is concluded that there is an urgent need to promote the survival of lentil populations in situ, since this will further support the adaptation and evolution of autochthonous genotypes in their original environments.