From ‘new wheat’ priced at only 337-342 euros per ton to drought, with the chronic lack of water due to failed management of water resources in Puglia, but also the lack of ‘reconstruction’ after the disaster caused by wildlife emergency. These are the issues addressed by Coldiretti Puglia, with farmers arriving from the countryside who met the Prefects of Puglia, with demonstrations in front of the Government Buildings.
«With Puglia invaded, come on wild boarsthere is not only the African plague, but there is an alarm for the safety of people in the countryside and in the city – denounces Alfonso Cavallo, president of Coldiretti Puglia – with the herds pushing right into urban centers among parked cars, prams with children and elderly people who go shopping, bathe in the sea, with the areas of the Murgia Bari and Tarantina, the Gargano and the Dauno sub-Apennines having become the Eldorado of wild boars, with a worrying frequency of road accidents”, but they devastate the crops by devouring Altamura lentils. grass peas, broad beans, chickpeas and peas, broccoli, vegetables, newly sown seedlings of field beans and wheat, grapes especially on espalier vines, fruit shaking the trees, all the undergrowth and the biodiversity of the woods and parks.
«Coldiretti Puglia requests the immediate application at a regional level of the measures envisaged by the interministerial decree launched last year for the adoption of an extraordinary plan for the management and containment of uncontrolled wildlife», he insists Pietro Piccioniregional director of Coldiretti.
Another emergency is drought – insists Coldiretti Puglia – with the failed management of water and reclamation in Puglia, starting from the lack of ordinary and extraordinary maintenance for which the farmers are still sent crazy bills. The same goes for irrigation works, many of which are incomplete, often in a precarious state, with losses that are no longer sustainable and even the reservoirs created need to be redeveloped, expanded and made suitable for modern distribution across the regional area.
For this reason, Coldiretti Puglia is asking for a permanent regional table for the irrigation and drought emergency that will address without delay long-standing and pressing issues facing ARIF and the commissioned reclamation consortia: Due to the sieve networks, 1 liter of water out of 2 is lost, one waste that cannot be afforded, from the efficiency of the supply and drainage networks to the completion of unfinished systems, from the extraordinary maintenance of collective irrigation systems, including wells and drinking water distribution networks in rural areas to the renewal of agreements with the Regions Basilicata and Molise, from the expansion and commissioning of plants suitable for modern distribution in the regional area to the age-old question of commissioned land reclamation consortia.
One of the most devastating effects of the lack of water has manifested itself – insists Coldiretti Puglia – precisely on the production of grain in Puglia, estimated to be down 40-45% this year due to the prolonged drought that has gripped the entire region for months, causing yield cuts. On the other hand, the quality is extraordinary with an average of 85 specific weight and 14 protein, for which Coldiretti Puglia does not accept any policy of reducing the prices of Made In Italy wheat, with the drain on the Granaio d’Italia making interventions necessary to help companies that have lost production and income, also in the face of now unsustainable increases in production costs.
But Xylella is an open wound in Puglia, with Coldiretti Puglia’s request for a regional table to deal synergistically with the completion of the extraordinary plan for the olive regeneration of Puglia, the fight against the advancement of the Pauca subspecies and the other two recently discovered subspecies, the start of a second plan for the regeneration of the areas affected by Xylella fastidiosa in Puglia and a full and conscious involvement of National Institutions and Europe on the Xylella problem.
