The Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) del Salento Lecce

The Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) del Salento Lecce


Antonio Bruno *





The increase in the cultivation of chickpea



There was an increase in the Salento Lecce cultivation of chickpea. This plant is highly resistant to aridity because of vertical root system well developed, which can reach and exceed one meter in depth and a number of small secondary roots.

It also has an atmospheric nitrogen-fixing activities designed so that it can fix nitrogen in an amount ranging between 67 and 141 kilograms per hectare.



"The Ciceri e tria"



There is a trio of female comedy made in Lecce, Salento "The Ciceri e tria". Three women who have been conquered by Zelig stage of the Italian public.



But what are the "Ciceri e tria"?



It is a plate of pasta and chickpeas. Let's see what are the ingredients. There's pasta, which is regularly cooked and then there's the pasta that is fried (the Tria) as well as chickpeas.



The "Tria"

The term "tria" is derived from the Arabic "itrya" which is a kind of mixture of flour, fried and dry it so that it can be transported inland to the desert where food would have been difficult.



Origin of Cece



The Cece does not exist in the wild, but cultivated. Probably comes from Cicer reticulatum Ladiz. and Cicer echinospermum Davis, wild forms of the genus Cicer, distributed in parts of south-eastern Turkey. The word is Etruscan Kiker or Jewish, and called for arietinum seed shape that resembles a ram's head. The region is home to western Asia from where it spread to India, Africa and Europe in ancient times: it was known by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Jews. It 'been cooked and eaten by our ancestors but the Arabs have taught us to add the fried dough with the dough that makes this a tasty dish of Salento in Lecce.



The Cece Black Muro Leccese



This feature originates in chickpea variety of Cassano delle Murge, near Bari on the success of the rediscovery of "old local seeds, the growing wave is both Cassano Muro Leccese in the Salento area where some real farmers their "guardians of the plants have continued to cultivate the plant until we send today.



The needs



The Cece requires a hot, dry weather, a loose ground limestone, slightly humid but not dry. This chick is a variety very resistant to adversity, it is never watered, can stand the cold and drought. Is sown from February to March. Attention to the soil in which to grow because the chickpea growing very well and is easier to cook in poor soils of limestone, especially the "red earth".



Cultivation



You must not use the manure! It promotes the anger of chickpea (Ascochyta rabiei) pathogen that can attack so badly to destroy the crop completely. The distance of sowing and 30 cm on the row between a plant and the other 50 cm between rows. Council soak the seeds in water 48 hours before planting to make it swell, it is a seed that has a slow swelling.

You make a single weeding and earthing up.



The study of Salento Lecce



In Salento Lecce Morphophysiology characteristics were studied in different plant growth stages of chickpea, and factors of production. The experimental test was conducted on the holding of the "St. Anna" Monteroni (LE), providing for the planting of five genotypes of chickpea: Pasha, Cairo, Vizier, the Sultan, Zollino.

The Sultan ecotype showed a greater investment in the collection with a value of 29.81 plants per square meter.

The average production of grain (13% moisture) obtained from the genotype Zollino was 107.77 grams per square meter, followed by genotype Pasha with 105.04 grams per square meter. The genotype Pasha gave the highest average weight of 1000 seeds (13% moisture content) amounted to 506.6 grams, followed by Vizier found to have 509.7 grams.

The genotypes tested Zollino Cairo and showed a greater average number of pods per plant, respectively, 15.6 and 13.0 pods per plant. The genotype Vizier, was the inclusion of the first pods have an average height of 25.2 cm while the genotypes Pasha Cairo and the entry has been made, respectively, to 23.37 cm and 23.47 cm from the ground

The Sultan of Cicer arientinum genotype was found to express, on average, the largest accumulation of dry matter (dm), reaching 43.11 grams followed by genotype Zollino with 41.82 grams.

The DM (dry matter) is a power unit that takes into account the data without the humidity. The values of nutrient content in food can be compared on the same principle.

While the best dm accumulation in grain was found to have the ecotype Zollino record by an average of 18.54 grams per unit,



The chickpea to revive the mother



The test results provide useful information and high interest in the possibility of including the cultivation of chickpea cultivation in the legal business of Salento in Lecce.

This allows production of grain of chickpea larger scale in the country as we have learned that have been observed particularly interesting results in terms of yields granellari with ecotype Zollino del Salento Lecce associated with a good size of the seed.

Add to this the black chickpea Muro Leccese in the skin that is very dark, even with the soaking and cooking tends to lose color, becoming brown, the inside is' clear that it was used in the pitch black Murge Baresi chickpea soup blacks to lift the mother from the toils of labor practice in force until the sixties, when the meat has definitively buried and replaced legumes.







* Agronomist (expert in urban and regional diagnostic entitled International University Master's Degree in Diagnostic IMD Urban and Regional Urban and Territorial Diagnostics).



Bibliography

Fabio Di Gioia, The preservation and cultivation of traditional varieties of CECE

Ciceri e Tria to Lecce http://www.lineaverde.rai.it/dl/portali/site/puntata/ContentItem-1c9b4b69-6b14-4b19-81e4-c1913bc57662.html

Angelo Fiore, chickpea: an alternative crop in southern areas

Botanical Laboratory of Systematic Botany and plant ecology, Vegetables del Salento

Henry Pantalelli, chickpea

Angelo Passalacqua, Cece Black Cassano Murge

Lombardi DA, S. Marchiori, Hail R., Brunetti F., Capano M., Raimo F. Assessment of the physiological and production of some grain legumes.