How do traditional crop varieties originate?

When we talk about varieties, we refer to plants of the same species that show noticeable differences, as happens with tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.). Even though they are the same species, there are many types with different culinary uses.

Traditional varieties are those cultivated in a specific area for at least fifty years, although their age often can’t be proven in writing and they are known thanks to popular memory.

The origin of a local variety

It all begins when a seed reaches a new territory. For example, with a squash plant, farmers would let it complete its life cycle and save the seeds year after year, choosing the best ones. This process combined artificial selection, done by humans (for size, taste, resistance…) and natural selection (for the ability to preserve and germinate). Over time, the plants adapted to the local environment and ended up differing by area, giving rise to the current local varieties.

A living legacy

The combination of natural and artificial selection is part of the plant domestication process, a valuable legacy that some people still maintain today, adapting plants to their environment and to an increasingly variable climate. However, this practice has been lost over time and often people buy seedlings, losing the connection to the seed and its genetic diversity. That is why it is important to preserve and promote local varieties, which are part of our culture, history and landscape, so we can continue sowing the future with the seeds of the past.