Arakas for Fava Santorinis

Crop: Lathyrus clymenum L. (Spanish vetchling)

L. clymenum, locally called ‘arakas’, is a landrace with historical origin, distinct identity, specific adaptability and it is closely connected with the traditional cultivation system on Santorini Island where it has been cultivated exclusively and continuously for more than 3500 years, while elsewhere it was known only as a wild plant. The archaeobotanical data support the theory of local origin and its continuity through culture and subsistence practices (Valamoti and Kotsakis 2007) and indicate that Lathyrus has been continuously cultivated in the Aegean region up to the present supporting the traditional farming and the low input rain-fed cultivation system for hundreds of years.

The dried legumes of ‘Arakas’ consist ‘Fava Santorinis’ a famous agricultural product of Santorini Island. The seeds are used to prepare a Greek dish called also ‘fava’. The production process of ‘Fava Santorinis’ begins with the cultivation of ‘arakas’ seeds of the plant species (L. clymenum L.) grown in the Santorini islands’ complex. This includes the basic stages of soil preparation, sowing and harvesting. The landrace is sown in December, shows a flowering in April, ripening and drying of the pods, locally called ‘louvia’, in late May and early June and the harvest follows. Its prostrate plant growth habit protects the plant from the strong winds. Each leaf consists of three pair of leaflets and tendrils, the flowers are white or purple, the shape of the pods is broad linear with slight restrictions of pods between the seeds, the shape of the seeds is square or rhomboid and the colour is brown-grey. The cotyledon colour (after removing the seed coat) is yellow (Guide for the identification of cultivated landraces, 2007). The processing of the harvested plants includes the basic stages of threshing, sifting and cleaning the seeds. Then the seeds are placed in appropriate areas to reduce their relative humidity to 13% and after 2-3 months the seeds are smashed and peeled. It has a very high nutritional value as it is rich in proteins (20%) and carbohydrates (>60%). The traditional method of its production which includes ripening in caves and drying under the sun, results its velvety texture and the slightly sweet taste. When weather conditions are good farmers on the island can reap about 800 kg of ‘arakas’ seeds per hectare. But generally it is a vulnerable crop, it can be destroyed by strong winds that blow away its flowers and reduce the yield, by drought or by sudden warm wind. Its production is thus limited making it an expensive crop for the farmer and the consumer. Its cost is four to five times higher that ‘Fava’ produced from fava beans or from peas.

The landrace is discriminated from other Greek and foreign Lathyrus landraces and commercial cultivars by morphological traits and molecular markers (Ganopoulos et al. 2012, Koutsika-Sotiriou et al. 2010, Traka-Mavrona et al. 2015). The phylogenetic analysis confirmed that the landrace ‘Fava’ of Santorini is genetical far from other commercial Lathyrus varieties and that it is a different and unique variety. This fact makes the product important for its future utilization mainly by farmers, who could use these new locally adapted populations using low inputs and potentially would be suitable for their use in organic farming systems. It has low requirements for irrigation and fertilization.

Cultivation System: low-input conditions.