Cereals

Cereals represent the kind of vegetable most cultivated in the entire world thanks to their adaptability to environmental conditions.

The products resulting from their processing have always been the staple food for the human organism and are particularly present in the Mediterranean diet. They represent an excellent energetic source and, on average, cover the 50% of daily calorie requirements, by furnishing a discrete resource of protein, vitamins, and mineral salts.

The most common and most consumed species are those belonging to the grasses, identifiable in:

• Wheat: the most important for the human consumption, subdivided in hard wheat, used for pasta-making, and soft wheat, used for the production of bread and baking product;
• Rice: particularly important in the Asian countries, it represent the 50% of the basic alimentation in the majority of the global population;
• Barley: used for human consumption and in the production of beer, but as well for feed;
• Corn: the 82% of cultivated corn is addressed to animal husbandry, the other 18% is destinated to other utilises, such as human food use, and energetic use;
• Sorghum: at global level, the sorghum represents the fifth most important cereal after the corn, rice, wheat, and barley. Its cultivation is particularly developed in Africa, Central America, and South Asia;
• Oat: the use of oat is both for feedstuff and human consumption, by which is indicated in the case of hypocaloric diets;
• Rye: the advantage represented of the cultivation of this cereal is its resistance to mountain climates and altitude, particularly popular in North Italy, is prevalent in diets for benefits in terms of intestinal health.

The production phases of cereals variates according to the cultivated plant, but they are subdivided in:

• Primary production, which is cultivation;
• Process, which variates according to the desired final product;
• Transformation, which takes place in mills or feedmills or farms according to their intended use;
• Transport of goods.

In the world the field addressed to the cultivation of cereals occupy about the 50% of the arable land area, and are spread over all continents.

The countries with the major production of cereals in the entire world are: China, United States, and India. In Italy cereals occupy the 45% of the arable land area, by which the majority is concentrated in the North.

The problematics linked to the consume of the soil have impact to the cereal supply chain at economic level: this, plus the goals of food safety and sustainable development, represent a challenge, and it is an incentive to innovate, for the entire supply chain.