Drought, damage for 6 billion to businesses

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At Latteria San Pietro, an agricultural cooperative with a turnover of 40 million euros in the Mantua area, they have already made the calculations: the drought this year will cause members to lose one million euros in turnover. «We produce Grana Padano – says the president, Stefano Pezzini – and the disciplinary of this PDO requires that a certain percentage of forage with which the cows are fed comes from the same breeding area. With dry meadows, it is clear that we will be forced to decrease production ». The meadows to which he refers are not even just any meadows: «They are centenary environments – explains Pezzini – they are called stable meadows because they never needed to be plowed or sown. And for the first time in their history, this year they are starting to dry out because of the drought. In the fall we will have to plow them. Even to think of it is a sacrilege.”

On World Water Day which is celebrated today, Italian agriculture is preparing to deal with the weight of drought in its 2023 company budgets. Last year the damage caused by the lack of water in the countryside was estimated at 6 billion euros, but according to Coldiretti this year we risk doing even worse. The lack of rainfall is affecting the choices of farms, which are moving from corn and rice, two crops that particularly need water, towards soybeans and wheat. Estimates by the CIA-Italian Farmers predict production drops from 10% up to 30%.

The problem mainly concerns the North. Rice farmers are the most concerned. Greenpeace Italy has calculated that 38% of Italian rice fields and irrigated crops are affected by severe-extreme drought, while for sowing the Risi Authority estimates a cut of 8 thousand hectares, the minimum for 30 years. «Last summer – says Francesco Bergamasco, who grows rice in Lomellina – I lost 40% of the harvest. Fortunately, rice prices were higher on the market and in the end I only lost 20% of my turnover». And this year? “Let’s hope it rains: in these parts today we only have 30% of the water we would need to flood the rice fields”.

The lack of water is also affecting the sowing of corn. According to the estimates of Compag, the national federation of agricultural retailers, in some areas of Lombardy the reduction is close to 15% compared to the last campaign, while in Veneto there is a drop of 30%. If twenty years ago production almost entirely covered the national requirement, now the self-sufficiency rate has dropped below 40%.

With drought set to become a structural problem, some farmers are starting to turn to technology to decrease water needs. The fruit and vegetable producers headed by Apo Conerpo, for example, have bet on two projects: the first concerns tomatoes, and allows for a 20% reduction in water thanks to the replacement of hose reels with irrigation hoses. The other experiment concerns kiwis: thanks to sensors in the ground, which calculate the exact degree of humidity required, and to irrigation systems which deposit only the number of drops needed at the precise point where they are needed, today 30% is sufficient of water less. In the rice sector, on the other hand, the producers who refer to the NaturaSì ecosystem are experimenting with cover-crops, i.e. cover crops, which have the aim of keeping the soil covered and protected from the risk of loss of organic matter and dehydration .