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The Southern Mediterranean, comprising the five countries of North Africa, has become increasingly dependent on food imports over the past few decades. High levels of population growth, a variable and arid climate along with scarce and fragile resources are contributing factors. Volatile food prices and political changes in the past few years have exacerbated the problems related to food import dependence, threatening food security. Addressing food security will require sustainable improvement of productivity, better management of natural resources, improved allocation of private and public resources to agriculture, and actions to achieve more inclusive, integrated, and efficient food systems.

The continuous increase of the world population (a growth of about one-third is expected by 2050), together with an even larger increase in food demand (especially in emerging countries), will lead in the next 30 years to the necessity to produce 70 % more food. To keep the pace with food demand, global cereal production would need to increase by 40 % overall, or by some 900 million tons between the present and 2050. Single countries can either increase production or increase net imports or a combination of both.

This new global emergency involves researchers, farmers, politicians, the agro-food industry, and all stakeholders, and the new challenge can be summarized as follows: to produce more, but in a sustainable way. The goal of “sustainable intensification” constitutes one of the priorities for the research in agriculture and one of the cornerstones of the new Common Agricultural Policy. In this context, all the techniques designed to maximize production through the more efficient use of resources are in line with the objectives of sustaining production with minimal impact.

In Mediterranean environments, cereal crops are grown mainly in the semiarid and subhumid areas. In arid and semiarid areas dryland farming, techniques are of renewed interest in the view of sustainability. They are aimed to increase water accumulation in the soil, reduce runoff and soil evaporation losses, choose species and varieties able to make better use of rainwater, and rationalize fertilization plans, sowing dates, and weed and pest control.

Fertilization plans should be based on well-defined principles of plant nutrition, soil chemistry, and chemistry of the fertilizer elements. Starting from the calculation of nutrient crop uptake (based on the actually obtainable yield), dose calculation must be corrected by considering the relationship between the availability of the trace elements in soil and the main physical and chemical parameters of the soil (pH, organic matter content, mineralization rate, C/N, ratio of solubilization of phosphorus, active lime content, presence of antagonist ions, etc.).

The choice of traditional, minimum, or no-tillage is one of the most controversial aspects of agricultural research; much depends on soil texture, crop type (depending mainly on the characteristics of the root), rainfall regime (mainly intensity), long-period tillage plan, structural stability of the soil (in function of the organic matter content), and all other variables and their interaction. In any case, minimum tillage and sod seeding are generally less expensive and evidence points to a lower production of CO with respect to traditional tillage.

Weed and pest control is also a critical point for the sustainability of cereal production: sustainability in control strategies involves minimizing the use of chemicals while safeguarding yields. To this end, priority should be given to preventive and nonchemical agronomic measures, while chemical means should be used only when the level of weeds and pests exceeds the threshold of economic damage.

Finally, precision farming is one of the most powerful tools for the sustainability of cereal crop production. This technique helps the farmers in their decisions, taking into account the local variability of physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil, as well as the timing of input application. With this management strategy, input of resources is balanced and optimized in order to increase yields and reduce interventions and costs; the environmental impact is significantly reduced, as well as the amount of resources used for the production.

Chia (ca L.) is an ancient crop from Central America which has been recently rediscovered as a source of ω-3 and nutraceuticals in seeds. Besides traditional seed consumption, innovative uses of the plant seeds and leaves have been proposed based on the high protein content and the production of mucilage which lends itself to a range of applications. This chapter reviews research on the plant’s genetics and breeding, quality, and uses. Agronomic studies which have only recently started worldwide are also presented along with results from case studies in Basilicata.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is currently one of the most widely used methods for assessing the environmental impacts and performance of livestock products. According to this procedure, intensification of animal production is generally advocated to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions compared with extensive grazing systems due to the use of selected breeds, with enhanced productivity, and the significant reductions in CH emissions consequent to the use of concentrates rather than forages. In addition, the impact of intensive systems on land use is much lower. However, free-ranging Podolian cattle show a number of positive environmental effects, such as increased climate stability, improved soil functionality, water quality and footprint and preservation from fires along with maintaining an economically active social community in otherwise unproductive, marginal areas. Other beneficial effects of extensive Podolian farming system include low competition with human nutrition and high level of animal health and welfare. An economic evaluation of these non-commodity outputs should be indirectly estimated by the avoided costs (e.g. reduced veterinary interventions and therapy treatments) or the lack of profits (e.g. direct payments for the enhancement of environmental performance) that would have incurred in their absence. These economic evaluations should be used in order to allocate them as further outputs to be included in the LCA in order to achieve a more accurate estimation of the impact of the Podolian farming system.

Buffalo farming is a dairy enterprise emerging in Italy and other European and non-European countries due to the progressive saturation of the dairy market, which requires product diversification. As a response to the increasing demand for dairy buffalo products, most farms are undertaking a progressive intensification of rearing techniques. In particular, feeding rely on different rations according to the physiological stage of the animals. Buffalo heifers are generally offered a total mixed ration based on corn silage and ryegrass hay, which require high amounts of water, chemical fertilisers and fossil fuel. Additionally, lactating buffaloes receive concentrates with an even higher environmental impact, whereas more fibrous feeds are used in the dry period. Although the emission factors for enteric fermentation and manure management in buffaloes appear to be 38.4 % and 20.5 % less than in dairy cows, respectively, the contribution of dairy buffalo farms to global warming has been estimated as higher than that produced by dairy cow farms. Therefore, studies are needed to assess the general environmental impact of this species and identify alternative environmental friendly rearing techniques.

Sustainability of sheep and goat production systems has been investigated in this chapter in terms of environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Strategies to reduce waste from animal husbandry activities and the negative impact of animal husbandry on environment have been described. Social sustainability has been analyzed in relation to animal welfare and human–animal relationship. Economic sustainability of sheep and goat production systems in the Mediterranean countries has been addressed in terms of animal management plans to improve animal health, quality of products, and increase profitability of animal production systems. In particular, strategies to change the basic standard for sheep and goat productions into high standard of nutritional, hygienic, and technological quality have been analyzed.

This chapter is a survey of recent studies on native sheep and goat breeds with special emphasis on their role as a tool of sustainability. After a short overview, strategies for adding value to the local breeds are described together with a synthesis of measures in support of animal biodiversity in marginal areas of Mediterranean environment. In this direction, three case studies are reported in which the added value of local breeds arising from a typical and/or traditional product is investigated. The first one is on native sheep breeds from Apulian region and the PDO cheese, and it indicates that and Apulian Merino breeds produce milk and cheese having nutritional characteristics and sensory properties distinguishable from non-native breeds. The second and third studies regard local goat breeds and local cheeses, and cheeses. As it appears from our discussion, breed produces milk and and cheeses with distinguishable fatty acid profile, nutritional index and sensory properties compared to other breeds. These peculiarities add value to the breed and therefore give a support in favour of this breed, amplifying its sustainable use. Finally, we point out that the high quantity of sialyloligosaccharides found in local breed compared to foreign breed appears as an interesting promising feature in the study of adding value to local breeds.

Thanks to its chemical composition and nutrient profile, jenny milk is usually recommended for the needs of newborn, heart and cholesterolemic patients. Nevertheless, the future use of this product is still to be defined. In the present, contributions of two promising ways of milk valorisation were discussed: natural cosmetics and new cheese productions. The results of our studies showed that face creams made with jenny milk allow a better skin hydration and moisturisation compared to conventional cosmetics. Moreover, the addition of small amounts of jenny milk is able to prevent late blowing defects in cow and in ewe cheese making. The provision of these findings to farmers may have important socio-economic and ecological implications.

Nowadays, crop production is at risk due to global warming, especially in Mediterranean areas where the increase of air temperature and/or reduction of precipitation is relevant. Climate changes that are occurring can severely prejudice plant defensive mechanisms during host-pathogen interactions by modifying growth and physiology of the host plant. In particular, viral diseases cause serious economic losses destroying crops and reducing agronomic productivity, and, in some cases such as tomato crops, they become the limiting factor production of both open field and under greenhouse cultivation systems. This is because plant viruses are obligate parasites and require living tissue for their multiplication and spread. Therefore, they are able to interfere with plant metabolism and compete for host plant resources, so determining a decrease of plant growth and productivity. Severe outbreaks of (CMV) and other viruses caused disruption of tomato plants in the Mediterranean region and in Southern Italy since the 1970s. In such a scenario, it is necessary to introduce new strategies for controlling plant pathogens and parasites in order to help maintain ecosystems and to boost sustainable agriculture. The aim of this work is to give an up-to-date overview on the recent breakthroughs in the use of microorganisms on plants for improving crop yields, quality and plant tolerance against pathogens. In particular, here we report a case study regarding an innovative strategy to control a viral disease (CMV) in tomato, based on the use of rhizosphere microorganism (, strain T-22) as an antagonist biocontrol agent (BCA).

The cultivation of (), a pool of traditional varieties protected with the mark PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) cultivated in the National Park of Agri Valley in Basilicata (southern Italy), is limited by common bacterial blight (CBB), caused by the seed-borne bacterium pv. () and pv. var. (), whose control is difficult because of the lack of safe bactericides. Hence, studies were undertaken to assess the susceptibility/tolerance of selected varieties toward the pathogens and to develop eco-compatible measures for the disease management. Five varieties showed a differential response to inoculations with virulent strains of the pathogens, and hence, two tolerant cultivars were selected for the introgression of CBB resistance characters. Among the main active components of some essential oils, eugenol determined a highly significant reduction of density on bean seeds, though at the higher dosage, the seed germination reduction was observed. These data indicate eugenol as potentially useful for bean seed disinfection from though further studies appear necessary Among 162 bacterial isolates from bean rhizosphere, six caused a clear reduction of lesions size ranging from 30 to 66 % suggesting that induced systemic resistance may be involved in that feature.