Binkel
A small-scale project for recultivation
As part of the small-scale project “Urgetreide Binkel – Chancen für die Rekultivierung einer historischen Getreideart des Voralpen- und Alpenraum” (Ancestral Grain Binkel – Opportunities for the Reclamation of a Historic Cereal Species of the Pre-Alpine and Alpine Regions), which started in January 2021, the Biosphere Administration Office dealt with the “revival” of the Binkel. This was done in cooperation with the Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture, the Genbank Tirol and the UNESCO Biosphere Park Salzburger Lungau. Considered a very special rarity today, the Binkel, also called dwarf wheat or pile wheat, was once widespread in the region.
This makes it the second research project in the Berchtesgadener Land Biosphere Region, to focus on old varieties of cereals and their potential, after the Laufen Land Wheat Project. Considered a very special rarity today, the Binkel, also called dwarf wheat or pile wheat, was once widespread in the region. The project came to closure on April 30, 2022.
The Binkel (Triticum aestivum subsp. compactum) or also called dwarf wheat or pile wheat, was once widely grown in the region. This ancient grain is the third oldest form of wheat after einkorn and emmer and was cultivated in some of Salzburg’s mountain valleys and in Chiemgau until the 1950s. Samples of Binkel have been stored in gene banks. The Genbank Tirol and the Bayerische Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft have taken Binkel from the collection of Erwin Mayr and the Landesanstalt für Pflanzenzucht und Samenprüfung in Rinn near Innsbruck as part of the conservation of autochthonous agricultural crops and cultivated them again. In the Biosphere Grain Garden, the variety Tiroler Früher Binkel (Tyrolean Early Binkel) was cultivated on about 1000 square meters in 2021. The crop could be provided to an organic farmer for further propagation of the Binkel in 2022. In the fall of 2022, the Biosphere Administration Office received four kilograms of TRI 3724 Winter Binkel for the Biosphere Grain Garden from the State Agricultural Office.
The project included the following:
- Agro-historical research
- Experimental cultivation of up to 30 Binkel accessions from the conservation assortment of the Bayerische Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft (LfL) and the Genbank Tirol on trial plots of the LfL in Ruhstorf a.d.Rott and the Genbank Tirol near Innsbruck for the description of agronomic parameters such as plant traits, susceptibility to disease and storage, and yield components.
- For selected Binkel accessions, thousand kernel weight, hectolitre weight, sieving and germination capacity were determined at Genbank Tirol. The LfL baking laboratory examined 10 accessions for their baking properties.
- Elaboration of marketing principles to raise awareness and publicize the Binkel incl. drafting of a guideline of recommendations
- Final presentation with recommendations for farmers, millers, bakers, consumers and presentation of prepared marketing principles
Biosphere Grain Garden
The following project goals were pursued:
- Definition and identification of Binkel accessions and their agronomic description.
- Nutritional, digestibility and processing-relevant analysis of the ingredients of the Binkel to ascertain the expected value for health
- Securing organic cultivation of the endangered Binkel cultivar, i.e. information on recultivation for farmers, millers and bakers as well as consumers.
Mit einer Rekultivierung des „Urgetreides Binkel“ kann für das Gebiet der EUREGIO Salzburg-Berchtesgadener Land-Traunstein zusammen mit dem Gebiet der EUREGIO Inntal eine botanische Attraktion entstehen und ein Beitrag zur alpinen Agrobiodiversität geleistet werden. Ein einzigartiges regionaltypisches Natur- und Kulturerbe mit gesundheitlichem Mehrwert bleibt dauerhaft erhalten und kann somit grenzüberschreitend touristisch genutzt werden.
Mit den bereits etablierten Landsorten Laufener Landweizen, Lungauer Tauernroggen, Berchtesgadener Vogel und Steiners Roter Tiroler Dinkel ist die Region bereits jetzt auf dem Weg „Botschafter für Nachhaltigkeit und biologische Vielfalt“ zu werden – die erfolgreiche Wiedereinführung des Binkels als echtes Urgetreide schafft ein absolutes Alleinstellungsmerkmal für den Grenzraum Bayern-Salzburg-Tirol.
Your contact person
Karin Heinrich
Sustainable regional development, agriculture and public relations
