The standard characterization of the Romanian onion landrace ‘Roșie de Făgăraș’

Abstract

‘Roșie de Făgăraș’ is a red onion landrace originating from the old region Făgăraș Country situated in South East Transylvania. It was officially included in the National Official Catalogue for cultivars and hybrids in 1952, for almost 50 years, and erased before 2004 without applying in situ conservation measures. However, food security depends on the appropriate management of all genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA). Thus they have to be conserved and sustainable used and efforts have to be done for the recognition of this landrace as a PGRFA and therefore to be maintained "under conservation" into the Official Catalogue. The study focused on analysing data from three localities recognized for cultivating ‘Roșie de Făgăraș’, in order to evaluate morphometric characteristics of mature onion bulbs according to the UPOV Standard TG/46/7, productivity, land cultivation and socio-economic vulnerabilities. The analysis of morphometric measurements results support that ‘Roșie de Făgăraș’ is a medium size red onion that may have the chance to enter the market place, at least at the small scale, according to the current regulatory framework of the European Union regarding the conservation of landraces and provided by: Directive 2008/62/EC, Directive 2009/145/EC and Directive 2010/60/EU. The analysis of productivity, and land cultivation revealed dramatic land use change associated with the decline of cultivated area as following: 76.27% in Mândra, 50% in Recea and 33.34% in Beclean. With an increasing aging population, lack of political support for entering the market place, decrease of landowners cultivating ‘Roșie de Făgăraș’ for trade will increase vulnerability of traditional knowledge related to the conservation of this landrace.

Keywords

• landrace
• onion
• UPOV Standard TG/46/7
• Romania, ‘Roșie de Făgăraș’