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Bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia (L.) Willd.), a grain legume crop well adapted in marginal soils, has mainly been used for animal feed. Nowadays, bitter vetch seeds in feed formulations are replaced by other protein sources such as soybean meal. However, in the context of sustainable economic development, it may be beneficial to enhance the cultivation of bitter vetch landraces in marginal areas. Fifty-six bitter vetch accessions of different provenance were preliminarily characterised by microsatellite DNA analysis to discriminate landraces suitable for specific and restricted environments. Twenty-two landraces of two genetically different groups were then selected for further characterisation by agro-morphological analyses. Being late-flowering with a seed yield of up to 3–4 t ha–1 in experimental field conditions, with neither chemical nor water input, these plants will be valuable material for long-term study to develop new cultivars adapted for seed production under organic agricultural systems in Southern Europe. The seeds of these 22 landraces were also evaluated, with positive results, as partial replacement of soybean in rabbit diets. Intensive conventional agriculture has diminished the local biodiversity and soil quality, and (re)introduction of neglected grain legumes can reduce this environmental impact. We demonstrated that the legume species bitter vetch is worth consideration as crop for seed production under no-input farming systems, especially in marginal soils of Southern Europe with climate conditions similar to those of Central Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to support field pea (Pisum sativum L.) breeding strategies for organic systems of southern European environments, by assessing the size of genotype × environment interaction (GEI) due to spatial and temporal factors across climatically contrasting regions and identifying plant characters associated with genotype adaptive responses. Twelve recent varieties were evaluated for grain yield and other traits in six organically managed environments (three sites × two cropping years) of northern, central and southern Italy. GEI for grain yield was large, with the variety × site × year interaction greatly exceeding the variety × site interaction. This finding, and the similar magnitude of the mean genetic correlations for variety yields across pairs of sites (rg = 0.56) and pairs of years (rg = 0.51), indicated the difficulty of exploiting variety × site interaction effects by breeding for specific climatic regions. Pattern analysis highlighted the large inconsistency across years for GEI pattern of the sites from central and southern Italy. GEI also complicated the targeting of varieties, owing to inconsistent top-performing material across years according to additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI)-modelled yields. Higher genotype mean yield was strictly associated (P < 0.01) with lower weed proportion (hence, greater competitiveness against weeds: r = –0.96), taller plants (r = 0.89) and larger seeds (r = 0.78), with looser associations with lower susceptibility to lodging and ascochyta blight. These traits, which also contributed to preferential adaptation to the moisture-favourable environments of northern Italy, could be selected in breeding widely adapted varieties. The choice of appropriate varieties is a great challenge when growing organic field pea. We assessed the effect of temporal and spatial variation of abiotic and biotic stresses on variety responses, defined the adaptation patterns of recent varieties across climatically contrasting environments of Italy, and highlighted useful plant characters under organic farming. The results suggest that selecting widely adapted varieties by multi-year evaluation in climatically contrasting sites can be an efficient strategy for field pea breeding targeting organic farming in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]