The Green Pistachio of Bronte

Scuola di Agraria FIRST LEVEL MASTER COURSE AGRICULTURAL HERITAGE SYSTEMS The Green Pistachio of Bronte Tutor Prof. Mauro Agnoletti Candidate Dr. Dario Pollicino Academic Year 2019/2020 Table of Contents 1. Summary Information 3 1.1 Name of the Agricultural Heritage System 1.2 Location of the Site 1.3 Accessibility of the Site to Capital City or Major cities 1.4 Area of Coverage (ha) 1.5 Agroecological Zone 1.6 Topographic Features 1.7 Climate Type 1.8 Approximate Population 1.9 Ethnicity 1.10 Main Sources of Livelihoods 2. Global Importance of the Proposed GIAHS Site 7 2.1 Historical Relevance 7 2.2 Specific Features of the Proposed GIAHS Site 13 2.3 Contemporary Relevance 20 3. Food and Livelihood Security 23 4. Agrobiodiversity 33 5. Local and Traditional Knowledge Systems 42 6. Cultures, Value Systems and Social Organizations 52 7. Landscape Features 58 8. Bibliography 67 1. Summary Information 1.1 Name of the Agricultural Heritage System The Green Pistachio of Bronte. 1.2 Location of the site The production area of the Green Pistachio of Bronte taken into account falls in the territory of the communes of Bronte and Adrano (Province of Catania) between 400 m and 900 meters above sea level. Latitude: 37°47'25"80 N. Longitude: 14°50'6"00 E. In particular, the boundaries are identified as: BRONTE – west along the Simeto River, east to the height of 900 a.s.l., south to the Commune of Adrano and north along the road from Bronte to Cesarò. 1.3 Accessibility of the site to capital city or major cities Bronte is located on the north-west slope of Mt. Etna. It can be reached from Catania, which is 54 km away, either by taking the highway 120 along the Ionian coast till Randazzo to then continue on the highway 284 or by taking the state roads that skirt the western slope of Mt. Etna. Furthermore, it is also possible to get to Bronte with the Circumetnea railway which connects several municipalities and leaves from Catania. There is also a wide range of pullman companies that take everyday people from Catania to Bronte. Finally, the closest airport is situated in Catania and it is only 49 away. 1.4 Area of coverage (hectares) Approximately 6.150 ha. 1.5 Agroecological zone (http://www.fao.org/nr/gaez/en/) Subtropics, warm/mod cool. 1.6 Topographic features The western slope of Mt. Etna is an area characterized by topographically rugged terrain and by thin and rocky volcanic soils. The whole Mt. Etna region encompasses a wide territorial surface which has historically been affected and interested by eruptions that began to occur 200 thousand years ago. The current stratovolcano land structure, which resulted from the restless activity of Mt. Etna, has considerably reshaped the fields where pistachio is grown. 1.7 Climate type The area interested by the cultivation of pistachio is defined by a semi-arid subtropical Mediterranean climate typical of the southern Italian regions. Summers are generally long and dry with just occasional heavy rains; the maximum temperatures can reach up to 35 °C with quite low levels of humidity and minimum temperatures of around 17 °C. Autumn and winter are the seasons that register the highest precipitation rates and the lowest average temperatures (6-8°C), sporadic snowfalls, and the most significant temperature changes between day and night. Thus, winter is the wettest season with 235 mm, followed by autumn with 197 mm, spring with 145 mm, and summer with 54 mm. The average annual temperature is around 14 °C. 1.8 Approximate Population The Bronte municipality counts around 20.000 thousand inhabitants. 1.9 Ethnicity Italian. 1.10 Main source of livelihoods According to the last data, nowadays around 60% of the population is actively involved in agricultural activities, 15% is employed in the industrial sector, 10% is devoted to trading activities, 8% works in the traditional artisan sector and the rest works as freelance. Thus, the local economy of Bronte relies predominantly on the agricultural sector and to a lesser extent on the zootechnic, artisanry, trading and industrial activities. The cultivation of pistachio, in concert with the transformation and marketing operations associated with such a product and carried out within the same area, represents the primary economic resource and the major source of wealth for the local population. In addition to the highly specialized pistachio cultivation, farmers have olive groves and grow almonds and prickly pears. The production of fresh fruit gives, indeed, a great boost to the local economy. The valley further north than the Simeto river is particularly fertile and has allowed Bronte to become an important producer of pears and peaches. Next page source: Land Use Map of the “Sicilian Department of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity”. Printing Scale: 1: 50.000. 2. Global Importance of the Proposed GIAHS Site 2.1 Historical Relevance The history of pistachio and its relationship with mankind could date back to as far as the Bronze age. They are considered one of the oldest flowering nut trees as they have been cultivated in the middle east for thousands of years. Only two nuts have been regarded to be Biblical inasmuch as they are cited in Genesis 43:11, and one of them is pistachio. “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the best products of the land in your bags, and carry down to the man as a present, a little balm and a little honey, aromatic gum and myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds.” It is only through an accurate study of Plinius’s “Historia Naturalis” that it is possible to claim with a high degree of confidence that the first pistachio trees (Pistacia Vera L.) were introduced in Italy by Lucio Vitellio, who was at the time Roman governor in Syria, around 30 A.D. It was, indeed, very common at the time to carry to Rome the exotic and bizarre plants found in the most remote corners of the empire. Although, as pointed out above, the first appearance of this plant on the Italian territory could go back to almost two-thousand years ago, it was probably the Arabs that made its cultivation and the consumption of its fruits more broadly popular. As a matter of fact, it was around the IX-XI centuries A.D., with the expulsion of the Byzantines by the hand of the Arabs, that the history of pistachio entered on a new phase in terms of its relevance and distribution (Marino, 2012). It is now crucial, for the purpose of this research, to attempt to trace back the origins of this specific nut tree in Sicily and to lay out how, as a result of long-lasting cultural developments and progressive interactions among different socio-economic and environmental factors, it came to be known worldwide either as “Green Gold” or “Sicily’s Emerald Green Gem”. The first pistachio trees have allegedly been brought to Sicily by the Arabs from Campania, which is at the present-day a region located in the South of Italy. A simple etymological study has been of great use to support this hypothesis. First of all, the main cultivar still grown in Sicily is called “Napoletana”, suggesting that its use may have originally flourished in Napoli, the capital city of Campania. Secondly, the pistachio tree is usually referred to as “fastuca” by Sicilian farmers and this dialectical term does seem to recall the name Arabs used to indicate the same plant, that is to say “fastuq”. (Petino 2010). Tab 1. Timeline of the history, terminology and diffusion of Pistachio. B.C. 20-30 A.D. X-XI Century XIX Century Old Testament Lucio Vitellio Arabs Its cultivation becomes economically relevant Assurbanipal’s Obelisk (Yemen) Genesis XLIII Vol. 11 Alexander the Great in Greece Tab 2. Terms used for the dentification of Pistachio in history. Persian Greek Arab Latin Sicilian Pesteh (fruit) Pistàkion (fruit) Fristach (fruit) Pistacia Vera Frastucara (plant) (female plant) Fisteh (fruit) Frastuch (plant) Piftecium (fruit) Terebinto (plant) Fistij (fruit) Fustuaq (fruit) Pistacium (fruit) Scornabecco (male plant Pistah (Pianta) Frastùca (fruit) Source Tab 1. and Tab 2.: Petino, 2010. As hinted in Tab 1, it is especially throughout the 18th the 19th centuries that the cultivation of pistachio started to assume an increasingly considerable importance from an agricultural, geographic, and economic point of view within the provinces of Catania and Agrigento. Several scientific writings give detailed testimonies of the growing relevance of this nut tree not only as a decorative plant stirring the curiosity of the noble households but also as a source of livelihoods for farmers (Ventura, 2007; the author makes reference to the writings of, for instance, Paolo Silvio Boccone and domenico Sestini). However, it is thanks to the “Rilievi del Regno di Sicilia” (Surveys of the Kingdom of Sicily) and to the “Catasto Provvisorio del Regno delle Due Sicilie” (Temporary land registry of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies), which date back to the 1747 and 1853 respectively, that it is possible to interpret the various land uses in Bronte and how they changed over time. Source: Lo Giudice, 1969. Crops distribution in Bronte in 1750. Source: Lo Giudice, 1969. Crops distribution in Bronte in 1850. What can be reasonably inferred from the two cartographic representations above illustrated is that it was not until the mid-19th century that pistachio cultivations were sufficiently extended on the territory to be officially recorded in the land registry, and it occurred concomitantly with the disappearance of the mulberry trees. The “Catasto Provvisorio del Regno delle due Sicilie” also tells us that such cultivations covered a surface of just 337,95 ha across the whole island.

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