Sicily in Italy

AS.A.R - our partner in Sicily, Italy

AS.A.R is a family seeds company born in late ’70s. The aim was increase yield and quality of agricultural crops by introducing new varieties with high potential yield and stability. Since ‘2000s AS.A.R. has build up a durum wheat and barley breeding program and now cooperates with national and international research centres.

Sicily was appointed a Case Study Region in RustWatch and AS.A.Rs role is to coordinate and carry out activities in the region aiming at facilitating the interaction between stakeholders in the region and RustWatch acivities.

One major activity is to host and coordinate a yearly Case Study Region workshop and to organise open field days and other activities that promote the project, demonstrate outputs from the RustWatch project. Secondly to identify needs and ideas from stakeholders in the region that will feed directly into the activities and developments in RustWatch. 

In RustWatch we will facilitate the exchange of ideas, knowledge and technologies  between the 5 selected case study regions. Workpackage 3 will also accomplish a comparable case study describing and comparing innovative IPM strategies in each region. 

Contact Person: Biagio Randazzo, AS.A.R e-mail: Biagio Randazzo;| Tel:

Case Study Region Workshop, 2019. Presentations from the meeting

Time: 6 March 2019

Place: Palermo

Topics and presenters

Negli ultimi anni in Sicilia si è assistito a un graduale incremento dell’incidenza di ruggine gialla (Puccinia stiiformis f. sp. tritici) e ruggine nera (Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici

) riscontrata su frumento tenero e duro www.nature.com/news/deadly-new-wheat-disease-threatens-europe-s-crops-1.21424 . Il problema della comparsa di nuove razze altamente virulenti è stato affrontato da diverse iniziative e nel 2018 è stato approvato il nuovo progetto RustWatch dalla commissione europea (H2020) per la ricerca e l’innovazione al fine di anticipare e di combattere la diffusione delle tre ruggini del frumento agro.au.dk/forskning/projekter/rustwatch/ .

Public material from the meeting. Some material are in local language.


Media:

Open Field day at the Ciminna breeding station 7 June 2019

A tutti gli interessati della regione - Invitation in Italian language

Wheat rust early warning in Sicily - In the frame of the European project H2020 RustWatch.

When and where: On Friday 7 June 2019 at 16.00 we are pleased to invite you to our experimental station of C.da Loreto - Ciminna (PA) coord. GPS 37.8902 13.5400.

Hosts:

Time Schedule 7 June 2019

  • 16:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Registration of participants

  • 16:30 to 16:45 Greetings and opening of the proceedings B. Randazzo

  • 16:45 to 18:00 Visit to the AS.A.R. monitoring station B. Randazzo

  • 18:00 to 18:30 Visit the breeding station and VCU trials G. Randazzo - B. Randazzo

  • 18:30 to 19:30 Full field visit with integrated control L. Norata - A. Comparato - B. Randazzo

  • 19,30-19.45 Transfer To pizzeria Garden - Villafrati (PA)

  • 19:45 to 20:15 Discussion All participants

  • 20:15 to 22:00 Tasting pizzas thanks and greetings

Background and objectives

The yield potential of wheat in Sicily is threatened by severe attacks of all three rusts throughout the region. Surveys carried out in 2019, shows a high incidence of brown rust detected on the main varieties cultivated in the area since the boot-heading phase, while the stripe rust and stem rust appeared late and threaten the later areas and the later sowing farmers’s fields http://agro.au.dk/forskning/projekter/rustwatch/news-and-events/show/artikel/wheat-rusts-threaten-european-wheat-production/. For this reasons we need to assess the risk of potential yield losses caused by new and unexpected epidemics through a comparison between all stakeholders. We will evaluate the resistance and susceptibility to the three rusts on main bread and durum wheat cultivars grown in Italy and Europe, lines and CVs sourced from international genebank and finally our breeding program aimed at introducing new sources of resistance. At the end of the day we will move into farmers’ fields to evaluate the methodologies and the effects of the integrated pest management (IPM) in the control of rusts on strip plots managed in collaboration with Bayer Crop Science and farmers. 

Case Study Region Workshop, 2020. Presentations from the meeting

Time: 2nd April 2020

Place: Online Zoom

Topics and presenters: Invitation

Public material from the meeting. Some material are in local language.


Media:

Case Study Region Workshop, 2021. Presentations from the meeting

Time: 9 June 2021

Place: Zoom meeting

Topics and presenters: Invito

Public material from the meeting. Some material are in local language.


Media: