Piana del Sele is a plain of about 500 km² which extends along the path of the river Sele in the province of Salerno. It is bordered to the north by the southern foothills of the Picentini mountains, east from the Sele Valley, to the south by the mountains of the “Subappennino Lucano” and west is bordered by the Tyrrhenian Sea in the Gulf of Salerno.
At the end of the Greek and Roman Civilizations, with the decline of Paestum, the lower part basin of the Sele was abandoned due to the malaria that dominated in the medieval and modern ages.
The land in the nineteenth century, isn’t much different in comparison to the sixteenth-century. The large and small land ownerships and sub-hilly ground predominate.
In this period most of the land was being exploited for breeding. The profits came from the sales of milk, and especially from the sales of meat.
At the end of the nineteenth century this type of exploitation caused the agrarian crisis that produced a new reorganization of the crops.
Inside the Piana del Sele two different concepts of agrarian production are developed. The innovating producers invest in more profitable activity, the conservative producers maintain his/her own production characterized in the cultivation of the grains and in the breeding of pigs.
Fascism starts the operation of remediation of the Plains that will transform the entire area. This remediation will allow the diffusion of some valuable crops that will become characteristic of the Piana del Sele. After World War II, incentives and services are created for modern crops thanks to the funds of ‘European RecoveryProgram, and the Marshall Plan.
In the decades following World War II, particular types of products especially vegetables and fruit, such as nectarines, kiwi, peaches, apricots, artichokes, strawberries are exclusive productions of the Piana del Sele.
Many businesses locate their floriculture and nursery plants in the the mouth of the Sele River. Fifty percent of the roses in Campania come from Piana del Sele. Buffalo breeding plays a key role in the economy of the Piana del Sele. More than 360 companies are concentrated in the territories of Eboli and Capaccio. The most famous product is the “mozzarella di bufala campana” which has received the mark of D.O.P.
