Ancient Wheats – As An Example Of Diversification In Organic Agriculture

Summary

Species diversity is one of the highest in organic agriculture yet arable farming is still characterized by the dominance of a few cereal species. The present work summarizes the results of a 3-year experiment on hulled wheats as potential candidates of food system diversification. 10 winter and 3 spring emmer and 5 winter einkorn accessions, most of them being landraces, were investigated on 10m2 plots under marginal sandy soil conditions in East-Hungary. Most winter accessions adapted well to these conditions, producing grain yield above 3 t/ha in 3-year average, and some landraces were even ranked higher than registered varieties. Einkorn proved to be resistant to leaf fungal diseases, however, Fusarium infected both species similarly. Compared to emmer, einkorn seeds contained higher bound flavonoids and had higher antioxidant activity. Based on our findings on grain yield and quality traits both emmer and einkorn can be a good alternative for organic growers.