Effect of cutting frequency on dry matter production in Stevia rebaudiana

Land abandonment in industrialized Countries and the need for subsidies make the search for new crops that can bring added value on the market extremely useful. Contemporarily, some dietetic problems encourage the search for new and natural sweeteners. Stevia rebaudiana is a common crop in Latin America but it is a new crop in Italy and can be useful to the survival of small farms. Due to recent introduction, only few researches have been carried out on this crop in Italy. Our trial has investigated the dry matter production of two groups of Stevia plants cut every 30 or 45 days. The group which was cut more frequently has given the best result in terms of production (610 g got in pots in comparison to 551 g of the group cut each 45 days, results that would amount to 0.61 and 0.55 tons per hectare). The 30 days group (cut three times) has had more stems (26 per plant) than the 45 days group (only 23), as this is also the group with higher DM production. Management techniques that increase the formation of more stems should be preferred to those that form single stem plants. Consequently, this crop with a frequent cut is suggested for the small farms that want to invest in this new crop. Stevia rebaudiana has now a very high commercial value in Italy (about 60-70 times more than sugar beet or sugar cane sugars) and can become a convenient crop especially for small farms located in areas with warm and rainy summers or with irrigation, that base their survival on product diversification and quality more than on mere quantity. Moreover, the many small farms with complex agro-silvo-pastoral systems and link to tourism services can sell this straight to their customers getting an interesting added value as typical and maybe organic crop.