There production of cereals, oil, fruit and vegetables and grapes in Basilicata is at historic lows.
The crisis is deep and general, affecting all sectors of agriculture.
It is Paolo Colonna, regional manager of Legacoop Agroalimentare, who raises yet another cry of alarm.
In these days of alarming data are recorded during the cereal campaign: the average production of durum wheat does not go beyond 10-15 quintals per hectare, with negative peaks even at 5 quintals in some internal areas of Matera.
Maurizio Carretta, president of Unità contadina, the historic agricultural cooperative of Vulture, reports:
“Compared to last year, over 3 million quintals of durum wheat have already been lost throughout the region.
The current prices do not comfort our members at all.
Added to the lack of production is the halving of supports deriving from the CAP received in recent weeks.
We are engulfed in a spiral of rapid business failure.”
Colonna declares:
“There The situation is close to the point of no return“.
In addition to the cereal sector, the Lucanian olive sector is also compromised.
The prolonged drought and soaring temperatures in spring they did not favor flowering.
Continue Column:
“The anomalous situation suggests the closure of almost all processing plants for the next harvest campaign.
Not even fruit and vegetables are saved.
Production was not able to be completed in the orchards, with the very scarce water resources we are thinking more about saving the plantations.”
The manager of Legacoop Agroalimentare adds:
“The crucial and worrying issue is precisely the management of water resources.
If we have to continue to do agriculture in this region with a minimum planning, it is necessary to start without further delay the management of water from the basins.
Why not take advantage of theabsence of rain for reclamation and cleaning works to increase the storage capacity of the reservoirs, with the parallel restructuring of the distribution network reduced to a sieve?
Every day there are breakdowns of the systems that leave entire areas in full production dry.”
This is not the time for controversy.
We need to provide solutions and identify new paths for Lucanian agriculture.
We need to qualify aggregation processes and move towards a differentiation of production, promote alternative opportunities to traditional crops in the Mediterranean, given that the latitude of some crops is increasingly increasing.
Multifunctionality can represent one of the elements to overcome this period of crisis.
Next month, as Legacoop Agroalimentare, we will propose to our cooperatives and producers new paths to earn income and try to get out of this enormously difficult situation”.
Paolo Colonna concludes:
“At the same time, the Green Table will have to forcefully proceed with the request for recognition of the state of disaster and the further establishment of a Crisis Table“.
