A guardian angel
Rino Mercuri is a young farmer of Borgo Cervaro, in the province of Foggia, in the heart of the Puglia Tavoliere, among the wheat dunes that confuse themselves on the horizon. At the head of a family -run company, Rino is the proof of hope, it is the proof of a return to the future possible and necessary. He talks about his wheat as a son, and the same goes for his asparagus, for his tomatoes and for his artichokes. Rino is yes an agricultural entrepreneur but he is first of all a man who lives to carry out a mission:
We farmers are the last custodians of these lands. If we leave, desert and brushwood will take the place of biodiversity, of the lands put to culture following the seasonality.
I don't know when I decided to do this job, I grew up, there has never been a real decision but a passage of witness. For me it is the most beautiful work I exist, I don't see myself that makes another one. Today I am 31 years old and for eight I am officially an agricultural entrepreneur.
To manage the company is me with my family. We take care of the culture of asparagus, tomatoes, artichokes as well as winter vegetables including fennel, broccoli, cabbage and durum wheat.
After all, we are in the Puglia Tavoliere and the flagship product is wheat. The wheat production volume is about 25-30%; Since she started the activity, 50 years ago, my family has dedicated a good part of the production to this cereal. But now things have changed, until 4 years ago durum wheat was produced by quantity, trying to obtain as much as possible.
Thanks to the Armando contract, it started to focus more on quality, discovering that in this territory it is possible to cultivate a wheat with high protein qualities.
Rino was immediately kidnapped by the Grano Armando project, he immediately took its meaning, the revolutionary charge:
I started from the first year, with 5-6 hectares of land, welcoming a challenge that everyone said that I would not have won. After trying that they were wrong, other farms accepted the challenge: to date we are on 350 hectares.
The contract tests our ability to know how to make agricultural entrepreneurs and on the other hand it gives us the safety of income: it rewards us with a fair price. On the one hand it covers the risk, on the other it obliges us to qualitative standards that presuppose expenses that are not necessary in a production for "quantity".
But there is more: we must compare ourselves with the high quality of the Canadian, Australian and American grains and we must do it by putting our lands, mainly of the South. It is important to understand this: with the production of exceptional pasta, those who earn it is the territory. Because with the same quality of the wheat, the difference makes it "the origin" of the raw material, and invest in our territory, in Italy, can only do well to Italy itself.
Maurizio is an example and not just for his children:
Not only do we apply the good cultivation rules in our fields, but we also give examples to our neighbors, we give advice, we teach to cultivate in a workmanlike manner and the cultivation of wheat has expanded to other fields that are not owned by us. We also work for third parties, but it is the same thing, we put the same commitment, the same passion and the same responsibility.
The secret is in the rotation: beetroot, corn, fodder alternate with wheat.
The beets is demanding: two sowing (October and March) more irrigation, desertion, fertilizations. It constantly needs water, even when we are engaged with the harvest, the workers deal with irrigation.
But to fully grasp the value of what Maurizio Fa, of his work, comes to the rescue Emilio Romagnoli, an agronomist doctor in Syngenta and the area technician:
Among my duties there is to follow the companies, such as that of Maurizio, to bring home the result. My role is to assist him on request, if he has problems that he cannot follow alone and also monitor the agronomic path until the final product is obtained with the characteristics requested by the supply chain, in this case an excellent quality of wheat with a percentage of protein not less than 14.5%. I am in contact with Maurizio at least once a week and we are constantly updated.
Yes, this is the deepest sense of the Armando pact: the incessant and obstinate research of excellence, the primacy of quality combined with quantity. Grano Armando is made of the effort of people like Maurizio:
The protocol is demanding for the farmer. It is not enough to obtain a wheat with certain characteristics, but it is necessary to make sure that the satisfaction is of all the actors participating in the supply chain: not only of the agricultor but also of the stocker who must have a healthy raw material, and not least of the pasta factory that there are good levels of protein and gluten, necessary to produce a high quality pasta.
