Dulce Freire

Archaeological interventions along Lisbon’s riverside have revealed critical insights into the city’s transformation from a maritime beach to an industrialized port zone. Excavations at the former Praia da Boa Vista revealed three ships (Boa Vista 1, 2, and 5), probably abandoned on the old Boa Vista beach between the last half of the seventeenth century and first half of the eighteenth century. These contexts, linked to the Atlantic trade and intense port activity, included botanical remains such as coconuts, cocoa, olives, and cherries, reflecting both crew consumption and commercial trade. Manual sampling favored large botanical materials, creating a preservation bias and limiting the interpretation of cargo diversity. Limitations included loss of stratigraphic data and label degradation. Nevertheless, the findings illuminate the integration of exotic and local products in Lisbon’s maritime economy. This study underscores the need for improved sampling methods in waterlogged environments and highlights how fragmentary remains can offer valuable insights into daily life, trade routes, and the environmental and commercial evolution of early modern Lisbon.

Focusing on Iberian rye, we explain how social opinion about crops can influence botanical scholars’ studies and breeding engineers’ research. Rye was an essential plant in some agricultural systems of the Iberian Peninsula for centuries because of its resistance. However, despite rye’s superiority over other cereals in adverse environments, its inferior position compared to wheat regarding food preferences helps to explain a lower consumption and an overall adverse social reputation. The early botanical investigation that formed the basis of later scientific research reflected this appreciation. Thus, with such weak foundations, given the lack of interest, when Iberian rye engineering began to develop in the 20th century, it looked abroad to find varieties of agronomic interest, barely studying native landraces. Analysing this phenomenon is a significant step towards drawing attention to a multifunctional plant adapted to the territory, which can offer solutions to present food and environmental challenges.

Meeting the water requirements for crops such as maize through irrigation can conflict with the increasing demand for efficient water management. This paper aims to contribute to the search for solutions to achieve a more rational water use for this crop in the Iberian Peninsula. It analyses written sources and unpublished oral testimonies to highlight the value of peasant and scientific knowledge in managing water resources through farming techniques other than irrigation used before the Green Revolution. However, the logic of productivity led to the introduction of hybrids and greater water availability through the construction of irrigation infrastructures. As a result, some of these techniques fell into oblivion, thereby losing this administrative aspect of moisture. In the current environmental context, reconsidering them is both logical and necessary.

This study analyses Portugal’s wheat productive capacity, exploring the reasons behind its recent steady decline despite achieving self-sufficiency in the 20th century. Using Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS), which proved to be highly effective in the development of forecasting models, the research provides valuable insights for countries facing similar challenges in defining production strategies. By employing this approach, decision-makers can improve resource allocation, ensure food security, and foster a resilient agricultural sector. The findings highlight the importance of understanding wheat production dynamics within the European Union and aligning national strategies with the Union’s goals and policies. The analysis indicates that achieving self-sufficiency is possible, supported by productivity improvements and increased cultivation areas. However, realizing significant production growth demands the adoption of sustainable strategies. This research contributes to shaping informed agricultural policies, enhancing decision-making processes, and promoting a more sustainable and efficient food production system to meet future challenges.

This article examines the dissemination processes and geography of wheat species and varieties in Portugal between the 16th and the 20th centuries. Based on a wide range of sources, from monastic records to official agricultural reports and oral interviews, it is concluded that the conditions that shaped the traditional division between soft varieties in the north and hard varieties in the south had changed by the late 19th century. At that point, soft landraces thrived in the south, but were soon replaced by improved/hybridized varieties, many of which were imported. Thus, wheat landraces persisted only in the mountainous peripheral areas, due to the agroecological and socioeconomic context. It is also emphasized that Portugal did not lag the most central countries in terms of agricultural biotechnology development.

Societal Impact Statement: Maize is the world's second most important agricultural crop. The cereal was unknown to Europeans before the end of the 15th century, but since its arrival in Europe, it has changed agriculture, food and landscapes. Terraces where maize was cultivated in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula contributed to the formation of local cultures and identities. The history of maize and maize landscape are mementos that help to recover traditional practices, fostering identities, and are crucial for the successful implementation of sustainable policies to provide prosperous futures.Summary: Maize (Zea mays L.) in the Iberian Peninsula embodies a history of landscape changes where the concepts of ‘exotic’, ‘traditional’ and ‘hybrid’ help to understand the engagements between landscape, farmers, agronomists (since the 19th and 20th centuries) and seeds. Today, landscapes reveal biophysical and ecological changes that reflect a panoply of intentions. A multitude of agents, and their interactions, acted upon those territories over time. Using historical sources from the leading institutions dedicated to agricultural research in the Iberian Peninsula, this paper aims to (1) contribute to a better understanding of the maize landscape and culture in the Iberian Peninsula and (2) interrogate how landscape changes (and the landscape history of maize) can frame local or regional heritage and identities reflecting customs or ways of life. The analysis unveils networks of knowledge, agricultural technologies and seed exchange. Politicians, economists, engineers, agronomists, farmers, governmental officials and agricultural industries planned and transformed traditional rural practices into modern and industrialised ones. Experts and politicians, willing to improve agricultural practices and seeds, using hybrid seeds or building new irrigation systems, led to deep social and landscape changes, allowing maize to cover territories far away from its traditional domains. Moreover, despite farmers' resistance, hybrid maize substituted landraces, eroding agrobiodiversity. Nowadays, the south and east regions of the Iberian Peninsula are the main producers of maize (hybrid), whereas in the Northwest maize is an occasional crop, being replaced by vineyards for economic reasons.

From its origins in Asia, cultivation of Oryza sativa L. in Portugal has had to adapt to local agroecological conditions. Since the late eighteenth century, there has been significant human intervention in rice production, particularly through public policies aimed at increasing production to achieve national food self-sufficiency. Using national and regional statistics on rice production, this article analyses how public policies on rice cultivation over the last 160 years have impacted and interacted with territorial agroecological conditions and the genetic characteristics of the rice varieties being cultivated. We concluded that public policies led to increased production by favouring the geographical reorganisation of rice production based on the rice varieties used and changing territorial agroecological conditions.

Desde el siglo XVII, el regadío se apunta como una solución para asentar población en el Alentejo debido al aumento de la producción agrícola y la consecuente reforma agraria. Sin embargo, solo desde mediados del siglo XX se produjo un crecimiento de las zonas de regadío. Después de más de seis décadas, este trabajo estudia el impacto de la construcción de la presa de Maranhão, Avis, Alentejo cruzando los objetivos fijados con la respectiva evolución demográfica, económica y social. Del análisis de distintas series estadísticas se concluye que la mayoría de los objetivos no se alcanzaron. Avis es hoy un territorio despoblado, con bajos índices de desarrollo y una estructura agraria latifundista. Además, se ha producido una expansión de los monocultivos intensivos, poniendo en peligro la sostenibilidad medioambiental regional. Esta reflexión basada en el análisis histórico es fundamental en un momento en que se anuncia la construcción de nuevas presas.

As fontes históricas escritas contêm dados que podem contribuir para a tomada de decisões sobre gestão e conservação da biodiversidade. Ao descreverem com crescente detalhe espécies variadas, manuscritos e livros permitem conhecer a composição e as dinâmicas de um determinado ecossistema. Apresentam-se algumas reflexões decorrentes da pesquisa que se tem vindo a desenvolver no projeto, em curso, “ReSEED – Rescuing seed’s heritage: engaging in a new framework of agriculture and innovation since the 18th century”. Discute-se como fontes históricas escritas podem contribuir para conhecer a biodiversidade do passado e para aprofundar a investigação na área das Ciências da Conservação. Em particular, foca-se na agrobiodiversidade, crucial no contexto da atual crise global de alimentos, sendo central nas discussões sobre soberania alimentar e conservação de recursos genéticos vegetais. A análise de obras publicadas sobre a Península Ibérica entre os séculos XV e XIX, visando diferentes fins e públicos, mas que têm como foco as plantas, permite identificar um conjunto amplo de espécies e variedades cultivadas, podendo ser utilizadas para construir modelos preditivos mais robustos sobre as circunstâncias associadas à perda de biodiversidade e agrobiodiversidade.

Recognition of the importance of protecting agrobiodiversity is not a new phenomenon. Crossing different sciences is often pinpointed as a relevant contributor to its successful protection. This paper proposes an integrated research approach in history and conservation science by opening new paths for using written historical sources in biodiversity inventories. It discusses some conceptual and methodological challenges raised by historical research regarding the diversity and distribution of wild and cultivated edible plants. The possibilities of using historical sources for compiling plant lists that can be integrated into biodiversity databases are also explored. Arguing that interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity are crucial, enabling a wide range of vernacular sources from several centuries to be cross-referenced, the paper aims to draw attention to written historical sources and their importance in deepening knowledge about past biodiversity patterns.