Erika Garozzo_UNICT_fieldwork data

This collection brings together ethnographic field notes and interviews conducted in the Simeto River Valley, Sicily, as part of the Horizon Europe project BIOTraCes. The material combines participant observation of collective and community events with individual interviews carried out with smallholders and small agricultural enterprises across the valley, from Adrano to Bronte, Paternò, Santa Maria di Licodia and Belpasso. Across these encounters, the central thread is the attempt to regenerate agricultural land and practices in contrast to the historical dominance of citrus and fruit monoculture in the area. Recurring themes include the recovery and adaptation of traditional irrigation systems such as the saie, experimentation with biodiversity-oriented and permaculture-inspired farming, and the search for forms of self-sufficiency and mutual aid among new and returning land workers. The interviews also touch on the gendered dimension of agricultural labour and land ownership, the social and economic obstacles to making smallholder farming sustainable, and the evolving relationship between local communities and the Simeto river, including questions of water scarcity, flooding, and pollution. Collective and ecomuseum-related activities documented through ethnographic observation complement these individual accounts, situating personal trajectories within broader community-based efforts to valorise the river and its surrounding agricultural landscape.