“A risk of sowing and lawns”
The drought has persisted for too many months, threatening local agriculture. The Adige river, Anbi is at an all-time low: the second winter rains were 50% lower than the historical average (source: ARPAV) and in March it has not rained yet. It is Coldiretti Verona to show its availability for the weather conditions, which puts sowing and lawns at risk.
“The greatest difficulty is encountered in fields sown in autumn with cereals such as barley and wheat which now begins the growth phase with the risk of being compromised by drought. But what is also worrying is the development of meadows intended for animal feed because if the dry conditions were to continue the farmers forced to intervene with emergency irrigation, where it will be possible, at very high costs due to the increase in the price of diesel. On the other hand, in the next few days work will start for the sowing of cornbut with arid and hard soils, operations could be more than problematic», Underlines Alex Vantini, president of Coldiretti Verona as well as president of the Bonifica Veronese consortium.
Also for the orchards, olive groves and vegetable crops there is a need for water but it is necessary to wait for the start of the irrigation season in the various districts affected by the Reclamation Consortia.
A situation that confirms how drought has become the most significant disaster for Italian agriculture, with an average estimated at one billion euros per year, especially for the quantity and quality of the damage collected, according to Coldiretti’s analysis. To make matters worse it is a crazy winter with a temperature 0.55 degrees higher than the average along the Peninsula, but with peaks three degrees higher in the north-west and scarce rainfall that has dried up rivers and lakes.
“To save water, increase irrigation capacity and increase the availability of food for families, a concrete project immediately cantier in the NRP is elaborated and proposed together with Anbi. – underlines Coldiretti – a structural intervention made necessary by the temporal changes of precipitation from the violent alternation to periods of absence of water, all along the national territory.
The project – concludes Coldiretti – provides for the construction of a network of small reservoirs with low landscape impact and spread throughout the territory, favoring the completion and recovery of existing structures, projects already started and to be started with non-complex authorization procedures, in order to quickly route the project and optimize the final results. The idea is to “build” without the use of cement to reduce the environmental impact ponds in balance with the territories, which conserve water to distribute it rationally to citizens, industry and agriculture, with a significant impact on the environment and employment“.