Biodiversity of Vegetable Crops, A Living Heritage

Intensive agriculture has generally resulted in higher productivity, but also in a trend towards decreasing levels of agro-biodiversity, which preservation represents a key-point to assure adaptability and resilience of agro-ecosystems to the global challenge to produce more and better food in a sustainable way. Many components of agro-biodiversity would not survive without the human interference, but human choices may also represent a threat for the agro-biodiversity preservation. The biodiversity in vegetable crops is composed by the genetic diversity, as species diversity (interspecific diversity) and as diversity of genes within a species (intraspecific diversity) referring to the vegetable grown varieties, and by the diversity of agro-ecosystems (agro-biodiversity). Intraspecific diversity is very ample in vegetable crops and is not reflected, at least not to the same extent, in other groups of crops. The labor operated by farmers over centuries of selection has led to the creation of a plurality of local varieties, following domestication of cultivated forms, and wide agro-biodiversity, a precious heritage both from a genetic and a cultural-historical point of view. Therefore, the agro-biodiversity related to vegetable crops has assumed very articulated connotations. It is also important to specify that a "local variety" (also called: landrace, farmer's variety, folk variety) is a population of a seed or vegetative-propagated crop characterized by greater or lesser genetic variation, which is however well identifiable and which usually has a local name. In facing the challenges of the modern vegetable growing sector, the many expressions of vegetable biodiversity are a key source for genetic improvement programs, to produce innovative vegetables with improved qualitative characteristics (crop diversification and new crops), to realize more environmentally sustainable agro-systems, to cope with issues of climate change, to find better adaptation to marginal soil conditions (salinity, atmospheric pollutants, etc.), not forgetting the need to recover and maintain links with history and folk traditions. Unfortunately, the genetic diversity of vegetable crops in many world regions has been eroded, due to several factors such as abandonment of rural areas, ageing of the farming population, failure to pass information down the generations (leading to loss of knowledge and historical memory), which can vary in relation to the type of genetic resource and location. In this view, it is important to create a biodiversity network to promote the exchange of information between stakeholders to facilitate the diffusion and protection of these genetic resources by: collecting and preserving memories and knowledge of biodiversity in vegetable crops; retrieving and identifying such landraces within the territory; characterizing, cataloguing and preserving them. On the other hand, it must be underlined that the conservation of genetic biodiversity must be based not only on institutional and private plant breeders and seed banks, but mainly on the vast number of growers who continuously select, improve, and use vegetable biodiversity at the local scale. This availability of in situ biodiversity may be able to meet not only the requirements of breeders but also the needs of specific niche markets, such as those in which there is high demand for local products grown with environmentally-friendly farming techniques. This Special Issue intends to cover the state-of-the-art, recent progress and perspectives in different aspects related to the biodiversity of vegetable crops. All types of manuscripts (original research, reviews, short communications, letter to editor and discussion) are welcome. Articles may include, but are not limited to, the following topics: Ethnobotany of local variety and wild edible plants Domestication and crop evolution Morphological, physiological, biochemical and genetic analysis Gene bank management Reports of collecting missions Project update regarding in situ conservation Quality evaluation and exploitation Ecological, social and economic implications of agro-biodiversity preservation/decline Policies