The drought is now at its extreme limits. The island’s reservoirs are almost empty with a drop in water in the reservoirs that exceeds fifty percent of capacity and trade organizations are looking for solutions to stop the crisis. The Santa Rosalia dam in Ragusa it shows 43 percent less than in 2023 and in the month of May alone there was a drop of a further 8 percent. From the meeting with the President of the Region Renato Schifani Agrinsieme emerged partially satisfied.
“We need to do more and quickly” is the warning of Agrinsieme Sicilia, the coordination that unites Confagricoltura, Cia and Copagri.
Various pieces of news were received during the meeting. First of all, that relating to the allocation of 10 million euros for fodder, which will be paid out via vouchers starting from the farmers who operate in the areas most affected by the drought. Agrinsieme had proposed that these sums be paid directly to the companies, but notes that the Government’s choice of the voucher is dictated by reasons of speed. An allocation, in any case, which is believed to represent only a first down payment, absolutely insufficient for the livestock companies that are fighting for survival, for which a further financial allocation has been requested.
Concrete interventions are called for on the expensive fuel and water shortages.
The Region is asked to urgently issue the decrees announced on the drought emergency, in particular the one on the construction of wells, lakes and desalination plants. And Agrinsieme Sicilia also requests the annulment of the bills of the Reclamation Consortia of the last years, the delimitation of the damage for arable crops and the exemption from the conditionality criteria for the CAP premiums.
The world represented by Agrinsieme is wide: the professional organizations Cia-Agricoltori Italiani, Confagricoltura, Copagri and the central cooperatives Confcooperative FedAgriPesca, Legacoop Agroalimentare and Agci Agrital are represented in it, in turn united in the acronym Alleanza Cooperative Italiane – Sector Agroalimentare. The Agrinsieme coordination represents over two thirds of Italian agricultural companies, 60 percent of the value of agricultural production and of the national cultivated area, over 800 thousand people employed in the companies represented.
