Collecting crop genetic resources in the Mediterranean agricultural islands: Corsica (Part I-northern Corsica)

The collecting mission on Corsica is part of a new exploration cycle opened in 2002 with a mission to the Maltese archipelago. The main aim is the safeguard of autochthonous crop genetic resources still present on Mediterranean islands. This new exploratory cycle follows the eight-year research accomplished for the collection of crop genetic resources from the small Italian islands. Corsica, with a surface area of 8722 km2, is the fourth largest Mediterranean island. Because of its prevalent mountain areas with a high number of small villages not readily accessible, a first exploratory mission was started in the northern part of the island in September 2003, with the southern part being visited in 2004. In our first expedition, 112 valuable landraces were collected, which belong to several species of pulses, vegetables, cereals, forages, spices and condiments. The progressive genetic erosion of crop genetic resources was clearly evident from the abandoned orchards found around all the all villages that were visited. Because of the genetic erosion risks, the building of a local genebank might help to keep alive the local agricultural traditions and resources.