«Taking a snapshot of Sardinia's cereal sector today, now rooted almost exclusively in the central-southern plains of the island , is not easy, especially due to the numerous variables that have intervened over the last two decades in transforming production towards agri-food, not livestock, consumption, a sector that retains its strength in the cultivation of durum wheat: the basic element for the production of bread and pasta».

This is the premise of Confagricoltura , which takes stock of the cereal sector in Sardinia, highlighting the sector's challenges and the need to address constant change. "This change," the association emphasizes, "began with the reforms implemented by the European Commission in the early 2000s, when interventions were made to promote cereal production through field rotation, thus ensuring the cultivation of legumes. This intervention also directed the EU subsidies allocated to farmers towards new payment channels that went beyond wheat monoculture. This intervention significantly reduced the cultivated areas, which were only partially recovered for legume arable crops."

THE DECLINE – A decline, Confagricoltura highlights, which has brought the areas dedicated to durum wheat in Sardinia from 97,108 hectares in 2003 to 28,475 hectares in 2025. A trend that from 2017 to today has never exceeded, with its ups and downs, the ceiling of 30,000 hectares. "While on the one hand this contraction has occurred, only partially recovered by other arable crops, on the other hand there have been consequent reductions in the quintals produced but, very interestingly, an increase in yields per hectare. We have therefore moved from a fluctuating situation in the first fifteen years of the century to a more stable picture in this last decade with a range that oscillates between 100,000 and 70,000 quintals harvested . Yields per hectare, on the other hand, have gone from almost 15 quintals in the early 2000s to an average of almost 27 quintals in the last five years . These data, however, must be evaluated within the context of the significant evolution that the sector has undergone, both in terms of reduced generational turnover and lack of manpower, and in terms of technological innovation and new production techniques.

COMPETITION – While the sector has substantially stabilized domestically, Confagricoltura continues, "external factors continue to create strong disruptions , such as product price trends, influenced by market globalization with the arrival in Europe, and therefore Sardinia, of significant quantities from Canada and Eastern Europe at prices far below the high-quality production standards to which local farmers are held. And while unbridled competition from international markets plays its part in challenging the sector, the climate crisis also plays a significant role, especially in managing heat waves and the dramatic change in seasons. This critical situation has therefore required a different approach in the search for genetic varieties to improve and promote for crops." This is a necessary step if we want to maintain adequate quantities, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The excellence of Sardinian durum wheat is perhaps one of the few strengths we can leverage by enhancing the production chains for traditional pasta and bread production.

FARMERS – The shortage of labor is certainly the most worrying factor binding all agricultural sectors in Europe. Specifically in the cereal sector, however, the price factor, paid to producers, is the other extremely tense factor.

"The sharp downward fluctuations, with farmers paid between €28 and €30 per quintal within supply chain programs, falling to €26 for those operating outside of such programs , are the biggest obstacle to quality production and, above all, to the economic survival of businesses. Such rock-bottom prices sometimes risk not covering the costs of preparing the fields, purchasing seeds, and final threshing. This unsustainable situation is pushing many grain growers to turn their attention to other crops or, even worse, abandon the profession," says Alessandro Abis, a farmer from Villasor and president of Confagricoltura Cagliari. Adding: "To improve the current situation, it is necessary to focus on two lines of intervention: an internal one , with the economic valorization of the supply chains that ensure the production of Sardinian wheat of high quality for transformation into traditional breads, first and foremost Carasau, which reaches the highest levels thanks to our wheat, and also pasta, which in Sardinia, like many other Italian regions, boasts unique and inimitable specificities that need to be protected and better promoted in the Mediterranean food sector."

Another issue to be addressed, continued the president of Confagricoltura Cagliari, "is competition from foreign wheat, produced under much less stringent agro-sanitary regulations than EU ones and therefore of lower quality. In recent developments in globalization, this has also led to a financialization of marketing. Essentially, when a cargo leaves North America for a European port, for example, there is no set price for the product, which is constantly subject to pressure from global stock market trends, both upward and, much more often, downward during the days of navigation. This situation therefore generates significant shocks to the final value of the wheat, which always falls on primary producers. It should therefore be the responsibility of the EU and national governments to impose new rules that limit this financial speculation, thus protecting the operations of farmers and the entire processing chain," concluded Alessandro Abis.

In short, the sector is currently "floating and in recent years has steadily declined in a direction that will only lead to the collapse of regional cereal farming," summarizes Paolo Canargiu, a farmer and livestock breeder from San Gavino Monreale. He raises, in addition to the critical issues already highlighted by Abis, the issue of promoting local seeds and the "need to invest in supply chain programs that start from the first stage of cultivation: from that Sardinian seed wheat, which still maintains levels of extraordinary excellence and which should be protected and improved through scientific research, so as to ensure that farmers have a superior starting point compared to global competitors."

RESEARCH – The Regional Agency Agris Sardegna focuses on scientific research, improving production, adapting to the climate crisis, and analyzing the sector as a whole. Through its researchers, it has also undertaken activities to genetically enhance local wheat varieties and improve cultivation techniques.

"The current trend," observes Marco Dettori, Director of the Research Service on Herbaceous Cropping Systems at Agris, "confirms the progressive reduction in cultivated areas and, consequently, production, only partially offset by increased yields. Harvests are therefore unable to even meet domestic demand for durum wheat. The causes of this situation are linked to several variables: the poor profitability of this crop due to low and volatile grain prices; the rising cost of raw materials (diesel, fertilizers, and herbicides); highly unpredictable weather and climate conditions, undoubtedly linked to climate change , which cause periods of prolonged drought alternating with often intense rainfall, and an increase in the frequency and duration of heat waves during planting preparations and throughout the crop cycle."

According to Dettori, to create the conditions for revitalizing the sector, it is necessary to "concentrate cultivation in the most fertile areas; employ agronomic techniques that ensure cost containment through precision agriculture; increase the area served by consortium water to allow for emergency irrigation, thus increasing and stabilizing yields; promote local products from short supply chains; and encourage the spread of agreements between producers and processors to establish a guaranteed minimum price ." Another factor in enhancing durum wheat, from a supply chain perspective, the Agris researcher concluded, is the high health value of Sardinian products, characterized by extremely low mycotoxin content, unlike wheat from abroad. This aspect must be leveraged, especially in terms of consumer information.

(Unioneonline/lf)

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