In Jolanda di Savoia, three and a half meters below sea level, live just under 3.000 souls. “Until there were rice weeders working in the paddy fields – says the engineer Adriano Zanella, president of the Consortium for the protection of the Po Delta PGI rice – there were 9.000 inhabitants. Since the harvesters were introduced for the cultivation of rice, the inhabitants have dropped to 3.000 and weeders are no longer to be seen.
Abandoned, in 1911, the old name of Le Venezie after a visit by Princess Jolanda, daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele III, the municipality extends between Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, in the provinces of Ferrara and Rovigo. You can't get more Po valley than this, among mosquitoes, mists, eels, pumpkins. And rice.
It is in this area that the Po Delta rice IGP (Typical Geographical Indication) is grown, a gastronomic excellence whose production has soared in recent decades. The numbers speak for themselves. In the 65s, there were 3 hectares of PGI rice fields for a production of XNUMX quintals; today they have reached just under 1.600 hectares for 78 quintals. The production area extends over 9 municipalities in the province of Ferrara and 8 in the province of Rovigo.
There are two orders of factors for this increase. On the one hand, a unique territory in the world, both because the lands are "young" since they emerged after the reclamations of the last century; both because they are rich in organoleptic and nutritional properties not found elsewhere; and because they are far from sources of pollution (few factories and little vehicular traffic). On the other hand, the fundamental work of the Consortium for the protection of the Po Delta PGI rice which is celebrating ten years since it obtained the protected certification mark in Jolanda di Savoia. It was 2006, in fact, when a group of farmers starts the procedures for PGI recognition, which then arrived in November 2009 with the definitive achievement of the European quality mark.
Today the Consortium, which protects, enhances and promotes the rice of the Po Delta, has 37 farms, all involved in the rice supply chain, from sowing through harvesting and drying to packaging and distribution. There is a very strict production regulation that the PGI mark imposes from which the producers obviously cannot deviate.
But the challenge of the future is organic. As is already the case in many areas, the Consortium is looking at the organic sector, "not for fashion - concludes Zanella - but to launch diversified product lines with low environmental impact, therefore more sustainable since there is no use of synthetic pesticides and herbicides". The project, developed together with the University of Ferrara, aims to encourage the innovation and diversification of the Po Delta PGI rice according to market demands to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of the area's products. The final goal will be the registration of organic rice of the Po Delta with the PGI brand.
