La coltivazione del grano tenero in Sicilia: prime valutazioni economiche

The Sicilian 2007-2013 Rural Development Program of Sicily, by the measure 1.2.3 "Enhance of the added value of agricultural and forestry products", created the conditions for the conclusion of supply contracts between a milling company and 18 Sicilian farmers who are committed to annually grow about 600 hectares of common wheat in 2010-2013. With reference to the years 2010-2012, a survey was conducted using data collected from 4 of the 18 grain farms involved in the initiative that have grown in this period both durum and common wheat, in order to quantify the key economic parameters and to allow an initial comparison. The evaluation showed interesting results for the common wheat both from the point of view of production (average yield of 47,7 q/ha), and in terms of the gross salable production (average 1.606 €/ha). The most significant economic parameters to evaluate the productive outcome, such as EBITDA and net, average resulted respectively 859 and 444 €/ha, about 100 €/ha more than what has been recorded for durum wheat; also the unit cost of production for the common wheat grain was significantly lower than that of durum wheat (-13%).