Agriculture
Of Dario DiJesus – 19 June 2024
Drought has struck agriculture in Sicily, and in particular the production of cereals, with an unprecedented crisis in the last hundred years. Production drops in some areas of between 70 and 90%. Many companies won’t even do the threshing.
Instead of preventing water crises and desertification, in the name of transition and “energy autonomy” from Catania to Mazara del Vallo, the coverage of hundreds of hectares of land, once fertile and profitable, with solar panels is encouraged.
In Sicily the ears of corn are empty in the fields. The drop in production in some areas is no less than 70%. “The worst drought in a century is exacerbated by a water system in poor condition, with broken pipes across the island and dams out of order. Despite this extreme situation, the little that can be produced is sold for 30 cents per kg (on average), a price that does not even cover production costs.”
Slow Food Italia is raising the alarm: in the name of the energy transition, speculation is being made on the crisis and the future of the Sicilian territory is being mortgaged. We forget that agriculture is the oldest guardian of our identity. Why are these panels, so important for producing renewable energy, placed one hectare after another on agricultural land? Why aren’t they on landfills, on abandoned quarries, on civil, public, industrial, commercial, logistics buildings, on car parks?
“We are not just a company – says Marco Romano who manages the Chibò and Barbarigo cereal company in Petralia Sottana in the province of Palermo – We must safeguard a territory for future generations. For this reason we are not willing to give up everything and cover our land with solar panels, but many companies are in debt up to their necks and are giving up because they are faced with a crossroads: on the one hand, tiring work that does not provide income, on the another an easy and secure income.” If you cross Sicily from Catania to Palermo, you see a violated landscape passing by, transfigured by hectares and hectares of solar panels. The entities that are installing them are investment funds, companies such as Engi, a French multinational that has created the largest agrivoltaic plant in Europe between Mazara del Vallo and Marsala, hundreds of hectares, to sell 80% of the energy to Amazon Italy.
“If energy policies were integrated with agricultural and cultural, social and economic policies, we would never have arrived at this dramatic and paradoxical competition between agriculture and the environment – underlines Serena Milano, director of Slow Food Italy – If politics had a vision of the future, would work to support companies in this critical phase; to restore soil fertility in a region that has more than 50% of the land at risk of desertification; to protect the beauty of the landscape; to support those who decide to stay and stop the constant bleeding of young people. Sicily, but also all of Italy, must choose whether to move towards widespread, sustainable and local production or towards private monopolies and an ever-increasing dependence on foreign imports”.
“We need an energy but also ecological transition, we must protect our landscape and, as Article 9 of the Constitution says, biodiversity, the environment and ecosystems – adds Francesco Sottile, professor of Biodiversity and quality of agricultural crops at University of Palermo and scientific biodiversity coordinator for Slow Food Italia – Sicilian varieties of durum wheat, often abandoned to make way for commercial varieties with higher yields, are able to adapt better to extreme climatic conditions. There are traditional varieties of dry-farmed vegetables, almost forgotten, that can go through an entire season without being irrigated. We must regenerate soils devastated by industrial agriculture that has never been sustainable and is even less so today when there is no water. We must review an entire production model and invest resources differently, trying to support virtuous farmers who believe in the principles of agroecology”.
Transition does not mean devastation of the ecosystem, and sustainability cannot ignore cultural and environmental identity.
