in safeguarding ancient techniques. For confirming
its global value, it is also to consider that Mediter-
ranean does not represent only a geographic di-
mension but a build-up of knowledge that trace
historical human events. In this context at European
and global level, Italy appears as an ideal reference
country for the sustainable diet model because of
its production of high quality and typical in all re-
gions, its climate, the richness and diversity of its
ecosystems, the type and variety of its products, its
large agro-food and gastronomic traditions.3.2 The crucial role of biodiversity conservation
During the past decade the concept of biodiversity
has passed from the sphere of academic authorities
to the growing attention of public opinion that con-
siders its defence as an important issue for sus-
tainable development. A promising approach for
dealing with this theme, is to identify “biodiversity
hot spots”, or areas featuring exceptional concen-
trations of endemic species and experiencing ex-
ceptional loss of habitat. One key hot spot, the
Mediterranean Basin, should be considered as a
hyper-hot candidate for conservation support in
light of its exceptional total (13 000) of endemic
plants (Myerset all., 2000). There is growing atten-
tion to the implications of cultivated biodiversity
loss, affecting the livelihoods of resource-poor
farmers and threatening the future prospective of
agricultural developments (Tripp and van der Heide,
1996). The replacement of traditional landraces of
major crops with modern cultivars had practically
been completed when, in the 1970s, the green rev-
olution in the developing world started (van de
Wouw et all., 2009). It is estimated that over 7 000
plant species used for food can be found across the
world (Bioversity International, 2009). Harlan (1975)
assesses around 3 60 cultivated crops and several
thousand species are also collected in their wild
habitats for food, fibre or medicine. However, the
human diet is based on very few crops. In fact, about
20 crops play a major role in human nutrition; cere-als (wheat, maize, rice, barley, sorghum and millet,
Table 1), root and tuber crops (cassava, potatoes,
yams and sweet potatoes) are the main starch com-
ponent of the human diet (Vigourouxet all., 2011).Table 1. Land used to grow the main cereal crops
in 2008. The area is based on data from
FAOSTAT 201 0
Crop(s) Cultivated land in millions of hectaresWheat 224
Maize 161
Rice, paddy 159
Barley 57
Sorghum 45
Millet 37In addition to conventional strategies addressing the
conservation and use of plant genetic resources,
farmer-participatory plant breeding is flanked today
(Tripp and van der Heide, 1996). Recent studies on
farmer-participatory plant breeding indicate that
decentralized participatory plant breeding is impor-
tant to increase and stabilize productivity and main-
tain genetic diversity as each pocket area is
occupied by the best and different genotypes. In re-
gions characterized by high genetic diversity, lan-
draces often evolve through crossing with wild
relatives, and farmers play an important role in se-
lecting and adapting new genotypes (Tripp and van
der Heide, 1996). Farmers should be encouraged to
diversify and not all select the same cultivars and
species, while breeders need to guarantee that
farmers can choose from a wide range of locally
adapted genotypes with a different genetic base (van
de Wouw et all., 2009). Conservation and sustainable
use of genetic resources is strategic to meet the fu-
ture demand of farmers and consumers. Mainte-
nance and survey of traditional germplasm typical
of the different regions as well as its wild or semi-
domesticated relatives can be of strategic impor-268