Revitalizing Marginal Areas of Basilicata (Southern Italy) with Saffron: A Strategy Approach Mixing Alternative Cultivation System and Land Suitability Analysis
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Area
2.1.1. Regional Scale
2.1.2. Experimental Site
2.2. Input Data for Local and Regional Analysis
- Meteorological data of the Tricarico station (from the Decentralized Functional Center of Civil Protection of Basilicata Region, see http://www.centrofunzionalebasilicata.it, last accessed on 10 April 2025) were acquired and collected to characterize the environmental conditions of the experimental area. These meteorological data include monthly precipitation and mean, maximum, and minimum air temperature collected during the vegetative period of saffron (September 2021–May 2022);
- Regional and municipal boundary of Basilicata (from the ISTAT-Italian National Institute of Statistics [64], see https://www.istat.it/notizia/confini-delle-unita-amministrative-a-fini-statistici-al-1-gennaio-2018-2/, last accessed on 10 April 2025);
- Tinitaly DEM (digital elevation model) at 10 m of spatial resolution (https://doi.org/10.13127/tinitaly/1.1, last accessed on 10 April 2025, [68]);
- Regional space data infrastructure of the Basilicata region (RSDI-Basilicata, see https://rsdi.regione.basilicata.it, last accessed on 10 April 2025);
2.3. Methodology
2.3.1. Local Scale: Construction of Terracing on the Sloping Experimental Field Using Dry-Laid Tuff Brick Walls
2.3.2. Local Scale: Planting Scheme, Flowers, Leaves, Daughter Corms, and Spice Yield
2.3.3. Local Scale: Spectrophotometric Analysis of Saffron Extract
2.3.4. Regional Scale: Land Suitability Mapping
3. Results and Discussions
3.1. Local Scale
3.1.1. Meteorological Data Elaboration
3.1.2. Production of Flowers and Corms, Determination of Leaf Length and Spice Yield
3.1.3. Saffron Quality
3.1.4. Economic Advantages and Synthetic Analysis of Costs
3.2. Regional Scale
Land Suitability Map
4. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Daughter Corms | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dimensional Class (cm) | <2.0 | 2.0–2.5 | 2.5–3 | 3–3.5 | 3.5–4.0 | >4.0 | Total |
Daughter Corms (Number) | 10 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 15 | 5 | 55 |
Daughter Corms (%) | 18.2 | 12.7 | 14.5 | 18.2 | 27.3 | 9.1 | 100 |
Materials/ Machinery | Tot. Time (min) | Tot. Time/Linear Meter | Tot. Cost/Linear Meter (EUR) | Tot. Cost (EUR) | Tot. Cost/m2 (EUR) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Excavator | 120 | 4 | 10 | 300 | 20 |
Labor | 2160 | 72 | 15 | 450 | 30 |
Tuffs | - | - | 8 | 240 | 16 |
Municipality | Suitable Areas (ha) | SNAI Classification 2021–2027 |
---|---|---|
Stigliano | 1623.57 | Ultra-peripheric |
Muro Lucano | 1044.21 | Peripheric |
Salandra | 1035.23 | Peripheric |
Potenza | 928.80 | Hub |
Tursi | 866.38 | Peripheric |
Tricarico | 852.05 | Intermediate |
Tolve | 787.30 | Urban belts |
Senise | 646.73 | Ultra-peripheric |
Sant’Arcangelo | 625.53 | Ultra-peripheric |
Lauria | 614.50 | Ultra-peripheric |
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© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Cicco, N.; Candido, V.; Coluzzi, R.; Imbrenda, V.; Lanfredi, M.; Larocca, M.; Lorusso, A.; Benelli, C.; Sofo, A. Revitalizing Marginal Areas of Basilicata (Southern Italy) with Saffron: A Strategy Approach Mixing Alternative Cultivation System and Land Suitability Analysis. Land 2025, 14, 902. https://doi.org/10.3390/land14040902
Cicco N, Candido V, Coluzzi R, Imbrenda V, Lanfredi M, Larocca M, Lorusso A, Benelli C, Sofo A. Revitalizing Marginal Areas of Basilicata (Southern Italy) with Saffron: A Strategy Approach Mixing Alternative Cultivation System and Land Suitability Analysis. Land. 2025; 14(4):902. https://doi.org/10.3390/land14040902
Chicago/Turabian StyleCicco, Nunzia, Vincenzo Candido, Rosa Coluzzi, Vito Imbrenda, Maria Lanfredi, Michele Larocca, Annarita Lorusso, Carla Benelli, and Adriano Sofo. 2025. "Revitalizing Marginal Areas of Basilicata (Southern Italy) with Saffron: A Strategy Approach Mixing Alternative Cultivation System and Land Suitability Analysis" Land 14, no. 4: 902. https://doi.org/10.3390/land14040902
APA StyleCicco, N., Candido, V., Coluzzi, R., Imbrenda, V., Lanfredi, M., Larocca, M., Lorusso, A., Benelli, C., & Sofo, A. (2025). Revitalizing Marginal Areas of Basilicata (Southern Italy) with Saffron: A Strategy Approach Mixing Alternative Cultivation System and Land Suitability Analysis. Land, 14(4), 902. https://doi.org/10.3390/land14040902