There is not only a 30% drop in production germ: I am also suffering sunflower e but, with percentages reaching -45% in the North. It doesn't fare much better than other cereals, nor ai pascoli, now dried for animal feed. More: for vegetables and fruit, in some territories, it reaches -70%, with damage to cherries in Puglia and Emilia Romagna, watermelons and melons burned by the heat in Veneto, ruined pears and apricots in the Ferrara area, burnt cuttings that lose their leaves in the Tuscan vineyards around Florence, peaches suffocated by the heat that fall from the branches before being able to develop completely and then the young olive trees in water stress.
The damage of drought: 332 companies and 358 workers at risk
La drought it is putting thousands of farms to the test, with heavy repercussions also on the labourers, in particular the seasonal workers, for the vast majority foreigners. It is the alarming picture drawn by Coldiretti: in jeopardy 332 companies and 358 workers coming from as many as 164 different countries who are engaged in the fields and stables, providing more than 29% of the total working days required.
Agricultural districts in crisis
There are many i agricultural districts where immigrant workers are an important component, as in the case – explains la Coldiretti – from the strawberry harvest in the Veronese area, the preparation of rooted cuttings in Friuli, apples in Trentino, fruit in Emilia Romagna, grapes in Piedmont, up to the dairy farms in Lombardy, where it is mainly the Indians. THE foreign workers employed in agriculture are mostly from Romania, Morocco, India and Albania, but almost all nationalities are represented. These are above all temporary workers, who cross the border every year for seasonal work and then return to their own country.
The crops most damaged by drought
But now the drought is giving a very heavy blow to the entire sector and also for seasonal workers there is the risk of an empty trip and unemployment due to the generalized and worrying reduction in agricultural production. In the Po Valley due to the lack of water, over 30% of the national agricultural production and half of the livestock that give rise to the Italian food valley are threatened.
Le Italian countryside are exhausted, with production drops of 45% for corn and fodder used to feed the animals, 20% for milk in the stables, 30% for durum wheat for pasta, over 1/5 of the production of common wheat, 30% of rice. And again: -15% for fruit burned by temperatures of 40 degrees, -20% for mussels and clams killed by the lack of water exchange in the Po Delta, where - Coldiretti highlights - the areas of "dead water" are widening, assaults of insects and grasshoppers with tens of thousands of hectares devastated.
It also worries the harvest just started in Italy with a prospect of a 10% drop in grapes, while there is alarm in the olive groves, with the heat that threatens to bring down production yields.
“We are facing a devastating impact on national productions – explains Coldiretti – with damage exceeding 6 billion euros, equal to 10% of the national production”.
