The bad weather of recent days has not spared the farmers of Forlì who have reported damage to orchards, horticultural plants and vineyards due to the hail. Even the wheat, in some cases, was bent by the strong gusts of wind.
Losses still to be quantified in economic terms and distributed discontinuously across the municipal territory which, however, add further difficulty to a sector exposed on the front line to the effects of climate change. «The damage – explains Danilo Misirocchi, president of Cia-Agricoltori Italiani Romagna – is patchy as often happens in the case of hailstorms. This means that there may have been significant effects in some areas and perhaps, if you move even a few hundred metres, the crops were spared from the disturbances.”
Among the neighborhoods most affected by the strong storms is the Villafranca neighborhood where there was no shortage of hail. A quick and merciless stone-throwing of ice hit the expanses of fruit trees, in some cases at the height of the ripening phase. «There was damage to agricultural production – continues Misirocchi – therefore primarily to the orchards. In some cases the strong wind also damaged the cereals, stretching the grain and thus leading to a reduction in production. In the areas where the hail was intense, some damage to the vineyards was also recorded.”
«The damage we found concerns fruit trees such as peaches, plums and kiwis – confirms Matteo Villa, a farmer from Villafranca -. We have given relief to the insurance but the effect has been patchy: there are entities that have been significantly affected and others that have not been affected”. «Data in hand – explains Andrea Ferrini, vice president of the provincial Coldiretti – we can already say that May proves to be the rainiest month of the year. Unlike previous decades before 2014 in which the peak rainfall was recorded in the months between November and February – he continues – due to climate change we are now moving to the spring period. In fact, significant rainfall was recorded
