Agricultural Genetics and Plant Breeding in Early Twentieth-Century Italy

This thesis is about plant breeding in Early 20th-Century Italy. The stories of the two most prominent Italian plant-breeders of the time, Nazareno Strampelli and Francesco Todaro, are used to explore a fragment of the often-neglected history of Italian agricultural research. While Italy was not at the forefront of agricultural innovation, research programs aimed at varietal innovation did emerge in the country, along with an early diffusion of Mendelism. Using philosophical as well as historical analysis, plant breeding is analysed throughout this thesis as a process: a sequence of steps that lays on practical skills and theoretical assumptions, acting on various elements of production. Systematic plant-breeding programs in Italy started from small individual efforts, attracting more and more resources until they became a crucial part of the fascist regime's infamous agricultural policy. Hybrid varieties developed in the early 20th century survived World War II and are now ancestors of the varieties that are still cultivated today. Despite this relevance, the history of Italian wheat hybrids is today largely forgotten: this thesis is an effort to re-evaluate a part of it. The research did allow previously unknown or neglected facts to emerge, giving a new perspective on the infamous alliance between plant-breeding programs and the fascist regime. This thesis undertakes an analysis of Italian plant-breeding programs as processes. Those processes had a practical as well as a theoretical side, and involved various elements of production. Although a complete history of Italian plant breeding still remains to be written, the Italian case can now be considered along with the other case-studies that other scholars have developed in the history of plant breeding. The hope is that this historical and philosophical analysis will contribute to the on-going effort to understand the history of plants.

Analyzing convergence of Agricultural and Rural Areas in the Enlarged EU: The case of Hungary

The fall of the Berlin Wall opened the way for a reform path – the transition process – which accompanied ten former Socialist countries in Central and South Eastern Europe to knock at the EU doors. By the way, at the time of the EU membership several economic and structural weaknesses remained. A tendency towards convergence between the new Member States (NMS) and the EU average income level emerged, together with a spread of inequality at the sub-regional level, mainly driven by the backwardness of the agricultural and rural areas. Several progresses were made in evaluating the policies for rural areas, but a shared definition of rurality is still missing. Numerous indicators were calculated for assessing the effectiveness of the Common Agricultural Policy and Rural Development Policy. Previous analysis on the Central and Eastern European countries found that the characteristics of the most backward areas were insufficiently addressed by the policies enacted; the low data availability and accountability at a sub-regional level, and the deficiencies in institutional planning and implementation represented an obstacle for targeting policies and payments. The next pages aim at providing a basis for understanding the connections between the peculiarities of the transition process, the current development performance of NMS and the EU role, with particular attention to the agricultural and rural areas. Applying a mixed methodological approach (multivariate statistics, non-parametric methods, spatial econometrics), this study contributes to the identification of rural areas and to the analysis of the changes occurred during the EU membership in Hungary, assessing the effect of CAP introduction and its contribution to the convergence of the Hungarian agricultural and rural. The author believes that more targeted – and therefore efficient – policies for agricultural and rural areas require a deeper knowledge of their structural and dynamic characteristics.

Fish quality assessment through the application of chemico-physical, sensory and microbiological analyses

The quality of fish products is indispensably linked to the freshness of the raw material modulated by appropriate manipulation and storage conditions, specially the storage temperature after catch. The purpose of the research presented in this thesis, which was largely conducted in the context of a research project funded by Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies (MIPAAF), concerned the evaluation of the freshness of farmed and wild fish species, in relation to different storage conditions, under ice (0°C) or at refrigeration temperature (4°C). Several specimens of different species, bogue (Boops boops), red mullet (Mullus barbatus), sea bream (Sparus aurata) and sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), during storage, under the different temperature conditions adopted, have been examined. The assessed control parameters were physical (texture, through the use of a dynamometer; visual quality using a computer vision system (CVS)), chemical (through footprint metabolomics 1H-NMR) and sensory (Quality Index Method (QIM). Microbiological determinations were also carried out on the species of hake (Merluccius merluccius). In general obtained results confirmed that the temperature of manipulation/conservation is a key factor in maintaining fish freshness. NMR spectroscopy showed to be able to quantify and evaluate the kinetics for unselected compounds during fish degradation, even a posteriori. This can be suitable for the development of new parameters related to quality and freshness. The development of physical methods, particularly the image analysis performed by computer vision system (CVS), for the evaluation of fish degradation, is very promising. Among CVS parameters, skin colour, presence and distribution of gill mucus, and eye shape modification evidenced a high sensibility for the estimation of fish quality loss, as a function of the adopted storage conditions. Particularly the eye concavity index detected on fish eye showed a high positive correlation with total QIM score.

Influence of plant structure, cultural pratices and environmental conditions on the development of the bacterial canker of kiwifruits

Italy has a preeminent rank in kiwifruit industry, being the first exporter and the second largest producer after China. However, in the last years kiwifruit yields and the total cultivated area considerably decreased, due to the pandemic spread of the bacterial canker caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa). Several climatic conditions and cultural practices affect the development of the bacterial canker. This research work focused on the impact of agricultural practices and microclimate conditions on the incidence and epidemiology of Psa in the orchard. Therefore, the effect of fertilization, irrigation, use of bio-regulators, rootstock, training system and pruning were examined. The effect of different tunnel systems was analyzed as well, to study the plant-pathogen interaction. Considering the importance of insects as vectors in other pathosystems, the role of Metcalfa pruinosa in the spread of the bacterial canker was investigated in controlled conditions. In addition, quality and storage properties of fruits from infected plants were assessed. The study of all these aspects of the agronomic practices is useful to define a strategy to limit the bacterial diffusion in the orchard. Overall, excess nitrogen fertilization, water stress, stagnant water supplies, pruning before summer and the high number of Metcalfa pruinosa increased the Psa incidence. In contrast, tunnel covers may be useful for the control of the disease, with special attention to the kind of material.