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| Agro-rural landscape in a village near Lezha |
The development of agritourism units in Albania and the passion for organic agriculture are increasing the interest in the use of some autochthonous seeds with hundreds of years of origin.
Sokrat Jani, a professor at the Agricultural University of Tirana, engaged for almost 40 years in intensive studies and research for the preservation and sustainable use of autochthonous plant genetic resources, said to Monitor that the development of agrotourism is encouraging the use of old Albanian seeds. He said that, due to the climate and geographical conditions, Albania has the richest autochthonous seed and seedling bank in the Region with about 4,500 cultivars.
He explained that year after year the number of people who are interested in having old autochthonous cultivars in their individual gardens or in their agritourism farms is increasing. Their development would be a profitable business at a time when global markets are increasingly oriented towards indigenous organic production. But on the other hand, many of the cultivars are heading towards extinction due to the massive abandonment of rural areas.
Professor Jani last year documented a series of autochthonous cultivars in the Northern Alps. According to him, the Albanian Alps are unique, due to the different environmental conditions caused by their geographical position and mountain ecology, the distances between villages, and the cultural autonomy of the population that lives there.
These criteria, combined with a rich agricultural history and the continuity of the home-garden tradition, make it an area with high agrobiodiversity. Last year we found and documented 76 native varieties that are still growing.
In most of the traditional harvested varieties grown and served by gardeners, beans were the most abundant, followed by pumpkin, cabbage, tomatoes, and peppers.
Usually, only 1 in 3 farmers in a community have preserved a significant number of traditional lands and many communities have lost them.
But the decline of the population engaged in agricultural activities in rural areas, due to migration, combined with the lack of cultural continuity in seed preservation traditions threatens the ability of communities to preserve agrobiodiversity.