Partner

The Grestini Maria Luisa company is a sole proprietorship, run entirely by the owner who personally takes care of the crops, livestock and related bureaucratic practices. The agricultural business was founded in 1973, the year in which the owner decided to open the VAT number and directly deal with the cultivation of the land then managed by the family. The passion for the countryside and dedication to working in the fields were therefore already inherent in the young farmer as she came from a peasant family. From its origins until today, the fund has expanded with the purchase of land co-owned with her husband Franco, who was also of rural origins but later dedicated himself to other work. To date the company has approximately 35 hectares of SAT, entirely held in the Municipality of Fossombrone and divided as follows:

- Arable land – approximately 14.50 hectares;

- Olive grove – approximately 0.70 hectares;

- Wooded pasture – approximately 1.50 hectares;

- Truffle fields – approximately 2.10 hectares;

- Woods – approximately 14.10 ha;

- Tare, uncultivated land, buildings and other surfaces – approximately 2.10 hectares.

Being in a hilly area with medium or significant slopes, very clayey soil with a significant presence of skeleton and exposures that are not always optimal, the choice of crops has always been oriented towards crops that allow a wide and planned rotation, reducing the inputs of external technical means. To maximize company diversification from the beginning, alongside the cultivation of the land, the breeding of Marchigiana breed beef cattle, sheep and pigs was supported, all fed almost entirely with products of company origin. For further diversification, the entrepreneur invested in electricity production in 2010, building a 100 kW photovoltaic system. Over the years, also thanks to the crisis in the meat market, Mrs. Grestini has reduced the number of cattle and pigs raised, moving from a breeding farm with mares to a fattening farm intended largely for self-consumption.

However, the entrepreneurial idea linked to the diversification of the outlet markets continued to guide the company's choices, leading, in 2018, to taking some crucial steps which represent a milestone in the history of the company and are the transition to the organic production method and the start of work for the creation of the bread-making and pasta-making activity of the cereals produced, associated with the company sales point.

The beekeeping activity was also started in 2020, which currently includes a limited number of hives, but which the agricultural entrepreneur intends to make into an important sector for the agricultural company. In 2021, Grestini Maria Luisa was a founding member of the Terre Marchigiane Organic District, a district that brings together many of the companies in the organic agri-food sector of the Marche Region.

At the moment the Grestini company is also one of the 5 companies in the Marche region which has been allowed to use the "Mountain Product" brand for their products. Currently the company directly sells extra virgin olive oil, hulled spelled, spelled flour, soft wheat, durum wheat and barley, dried pasta, fresh pasta, bread, toasted barley for coffee and honey. Over the years, the cultivation of sunflower, an important renewal crop, has also been experimented with, using the product for cold pressing and the subsequent sale of the oil. The cake (by-product of the oil extraction process) was reused as feed in the company's livestock farming.

From this experience, linked to the organic sunflower supply chain, economic potential emerged linked to the expansion of the offer of marketable and agronomic products linked to the inclusion of a renewal plant species in wide-ranging crop rotations. On the other hand, some problems have also emerged which have left some doubts about the stable adoption of sunflower as a renewer. The most relevant issues are linked to the presence of harmful ungulates (wild boars) which cause significant damage to cultivation, the climate, the production of honey and the use of by-products (cake). Without prejudice to the fact that the problem of harmful wildlife is an issue that cannot be addressed by a single company, except with containment and defense actions through fences, etc., the entrepreneur has decided to evaluate with the Polytechnic University of Marche (D3A) , GO partner, the use of some old sunflower varieties/accessions.

The objective is the study of these varieties in order to find the balance between primary production (hulled achenes, oil and seeds), secondary production (cake), "collateral" productions (honey) and externalities (biodiversity, improvement of soil fertility , ecosystem services, CO2 sequestration, etc…). The entrepreneur for her part makes available to the GO her knowledge, her experience in land cultivation, her passion, her territorial network (companies in the Marche Organic District), her time and her efforts so that from this project they can to produce concrete results, useful to the entire agricultural world and to those who, like you, dedicate themselves with an adamantine spirit to the countryside and its fruits. beekeeping companies to produce sunflower honey or increase the production of wildflowers.

UNIVPM – D3A

The public entity involved is the Polytechnic University of Marche (UNIVPM), based in Ancona.

UNIVPM is a university spread across the territory to allow the dissemination of the educational offering and the activation of a stable research activity, it has operational offices in Ancona, Ascoli Piceno, Fermo, Macerata, Pesaro, San Benedetto del Tronto.

There are numerous research, dissemination and university teaching activities carried out by the UNIVPM, and in particular by the Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences (D3A) in the various fields of agri-food, summarized below: Agronomy, Agro-engineering and Territory, Biochemistry, Plant and forestry biology, Chemistry, Tree crops, General and applied entomology, Agricultural, industrial and environmental genetics, Food microbiology, Viticulture, Plant pathology, Animal production, Economic sciences in agricultural and territorial systems, Food sciences and technologies , Physical sciences and soil sciences.

D3A researchers collaborate directly with numerous Research Institutions and Networks of Excellence around the world, coordinating and carrying out the activity of numerous national and international research projects. Among the various areas of excellent research in which UNIVPM is engaged, the AGRO-FOOD sector is particularly significant based on strong motivations both at University level and at European and regional level. In the agri-food sector, the D3A involves many research groups, with multidisciplinary skills which concern, among other things, food, nutrition and health, food production processes, environmental and economic sustainability, protection of biodiversity, genetic improvement, adaptation to climate change and low environmental impact control strategies for insects harmful to crops.

Within the Plant Protection sector of the D3A, studies are conducted for the development of low environmental impact control strategies for harmful insects, the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services and beekeeping. In the sector of Agronomy and herbaceous cultivation, various lines of research are active which also include the sustainable production of horticultural and herbaceous systems. In the Food Technologies sector, research is active regarding the characterization of bioactive components (fat-soluble vitamins, essential amino acids, bioactive fatty acids) and the influence of technology on the bioactive fraction of foods of plant and animal origin. UNIVPM will cover the role of public research and dissemination body, making its results, skills and knowledge available in implementing the cooperation project.