Intensive agriculture, with the massive use of fertilizers and pesticides to meet the needs of agro-industry, has had disastrous consequences on the environment. Over the years, this practice has reduced soil fertility to zero, contributing to water and air pollution and causing a significant decline in biodiversity in all places where it is practiced.

To address this environmental crisis, it is essential that agriculture returns to its primary purpose, which is to produce healthy and high-quality food , respecting ecosystems and their biodiversity. To date, there is no ready-made solution to this problem, but one of the most promising approaches is Biodiverse agriculture, which aims not only to reduce the impact of this human activity, but also to reverse the degradation process, to regenerate the soil, reduce the pollution generated and restore the balance between production systems and nature.

Biodiverse agriculture is based on the innovative vision of a series of traditional practices, which aim to restore fertility and vitality to the soil, for example through crop rotation, conscious management of vegetation cover, the use of companion plants and defensive plants for protection from diseases and harmful insects and the use of natural fertilizers. These methods are experimental and require investments that are not necessarily remunerative, but are essential to identify long-term solutions for a correct cohesion between man and nature.

Thanks to the revenues of Almo Nature, Fondazione Capellino, through its agricultural company RVF has been experimenting for years and will experiment with new and ancient agricultural practices to organize a sustainable production of food, with the primary aim of overcoming the current model of agriculture that works vertically, still using high quantities of pesticides to ensure adequate production. Thanks to a scientific and systematic measurement of the effects obtained, and not simply empirical, it will finally be possible to define the truly effective practices that can be replicated and further validated in other contexts and in other environments.

To date, vineyards and agroforestry are objects of study under different aspects, soil regeneration, elimination of pesticides and herbicides, mixed production, all also focusing on an important concept, that is, what is the maximum biodiversity possible and tolerable by an agricultural system to create a productive ecosystem in balance with natural systems.

The progress of the project

• 2019-2021 Evaluation of ecosystem services present before the start of the regeneration activity, through in-depth chemical-physical analysis of the soil, biological quality of the soil (QBS) and with analysis of the environmental DNA present in the entire area and monitoring of the local flora and fauna.

• 2021 Insertion of a varied agroforestry system, in an area of 3.6 hectares, organized to include production trees (60%) including cherry, apple, pear and plum trees, fast-growing biomass trees (20%) such as paulownia, white poplar and white mulberry and trees that support the ecosystem such as wild service tree, field maple and laburnum. To support biodiversity, productive shrubs such as hazelnuts and pomegranates and ecosystem shrubs such as Elaeagnus umbellata have also been inserted.

• 2021-2023 Study and monitoring of parasitic insects present in the area to define a new minimally invasive biological control strategy with local antagonists to harmful insects.

• 2022 Ecological corridor planting, with trees supporting biodiversity including field maple, hazelnut, white hornbeam, oak, wild service tree, Turkey oak , wild pear tree and wild apple tree, surrounded by shrubs such as dog rose, dogwood , common privet, hawthorn, buckthorn, wild blackthorn, priest's cap and dogwood.

• 2022 Fortification of the wooded areas of the property with planting of local trees.

• 2022 Plantation of 0.65 hectares of Slarina type vineyard , an ancient and native variety and 0.65 hectares of Freisa type vineyard.

• 2022-2024 Launch of zero-copper vineyard with testing of resistance inducers for preventive purposes and use of various anti-sporulants to combat vine diseases.

• 2022-2023 Conducted study to calculate _CO2 removals , carbon storages and mitigation potential of agroforestry, ecological corridor and forest areas.

• 2023 Plant experimental cover crops to encourage increased soil organic matter and reduce erosion.

• 2024 Start of experimentation on soil health and biodiversity with distribution of natural soil improvers and fertilizers of various types (compost, biochar , pectin, biofertilizers) to evaluate the effects on existing crops and the reaction of the local soil type.

• 2024 Plantation of approximately one and a half hectares of white grape vineyard, Baratuciat and Viognier varieties

• 2024 experimental planting of Soreli in association with fruit trees in a portion of agroforestry.

• 2024 Start of renovation of the historic farmhouses that will become the headquarters of Fondazione Capellino and the biodiversity school.

Download the file with the technical information on the project

Villa Fortuna regularly hosts training meetings and seminars on agriculture and biodiversity. Below are some images of the latest events: