CREA: the 2021 activity report is online - CREA: the 2021 activity report is online

The 2021 CREA Report is online: activities, studies and enterprises carried out in 2021 by the most important Italian Research Institution on Agrifood, supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture, food sovereignty and Forestry (Masaf).

“In 2021 the number of articles published in scientific journals, most of them international, doubled compared to 2020, going from 634 to 1.412; research activities still in due course are 900 circa, 12% up on the previous year. Moreover, doctorates have significantly increased, research grants and scholarships have gone from 200 in 2020 to 464 in 2021. These figures, undoubtedly, put CREA in the first place within the Italian Agrifood framework. It must be underlined the fil rouge that links studies which are very different from one another but share the main goal to achieve the best possible interaction between basic and applied research in the agrozootechnical field, forestry, food and nutrition, agricultural politic and economic alike. An inestimable immaterial capital, though, which needs to be supported as it embodies the true essence of an Institution that has given, and will give, so much to the progress of the Agrifood sector in Italy and worldwide, as well.” Thus, spoke Carlo Gaudio, CREA President, on the publication of the 2021 CREA Report.

CREA 2021 Report 893 researches still in due course (12% up on 2020), 1.412 publications (more than double compared to the 634 of the 2020), most of them on trade journals, 464 doctorates, research grants and scholarships (those doubled as well if compared to the 200 of 2020), ranging from genomics to mechanical and electronic technology, to traditional varietal improvement, predictive modelling to ease the sustainability of agricultural activity, reducing pesticides and increasing plant resistance to water stress and adversity, and we not fail to mention the fight against plants parasites, both alien and traditional. For this very reason CREA Difesa e Certificazione (Defense and Certification), the National Institute for plant protection, through the end of 2021 has started a new national laboratory for quarantine which will allow Italy to be a worldwide leader in the risk management of the dangerous species for agriculture. Moreover, in 2021 CREA Centres have worked towards animal welfare and the development of specific solutions for the different kinds of Italian agriculture, on the enhancement of natural resources and productions, first and foremost water and soil, on minor supply chains and on the wood and forest framework.

Indeed, an intense activity, carried out within the 5000 hectares of experimental fields, has led to 79 patents (almost doubling the figures of 2020) and 693 plant rights and varieties listed in national registers. To this effort we have to add the huge heritage of collections and databases: 132, to be precise, most of them constituted in 2021 and a true unicum at worldwide level, particularly the germoplasm collections, of global importance when talking about vine, olive tree and the vast majority of cereals.

The technical-scientific support given to the institutions, in general, and other research institutions is proven by the presence of CREA in hundreds of technical panels and commissions, at both national and international level, with the related technical and programmatic documentations, but also by institutional partnership, certifications and dissemination events for a grand total of more than 2000 initiatives.

In this perspective, the support to the Regions, Masaf and the Government as a whole has been mandatory in the lengthy and complex confrontation with the European Commission for the definition of the National Strategic Plan, the pivotal document of the new PAC.

As far as food and nutrition are concerned CREA, in 2021, has been working on a steady implementation of several, important researches that have contributed to consolidate the Italian nutritional pattern in the world. We report, as well, the food composition charts, a database for each and every nutritional analysis that CREA, inheriting the legacy of INRAN, processes since 70 years and the crucial scientific support granted to the Italian government, in collation with the European Community, on the Nutriscore- NutrInform Battery to assess the fallacy and inadequacy of the nutriscore for the consumers.

The 2021 report benefits, as well, of all the data collected from the scientific and historic libraries (28) and the scientific and technological infostructures (179), giving a comprehensive look upon the Institution research capability: a huge artistic, literary and scientific heritage that CREA, as rightful heir of a number of research institutions that have literally written the scientific history of this country, takes pride in keeping and improving.

“CREA is the true engine of the Italian agrifood research- has declared Stefano Vaccari, CREA Director General who conceived this book- The significative improvement of the activities in each and every agrifood and environmental scope, if compared with the previous year, is the reason why it is possible to do even more. To the hundreds of operative researches CREA joins forces to preserve animal and vegetal germoplasm: CREA collections, in fact, are among the most prestigious in the world and allow geneticists to have useful material to create new varieties, more productive and pathogens resistant. The humongous biodiversity heritage guarded by CREA is an integral part of the research”.

Designed for an easy consultation it is available, both in Italian and English, on the CREA website and, shortly, at the following link.