Agriculture, frost warning after the explosion of blooms. High attention for vineyards, olive groves and orchards

From swimming in the sea to wearing a coat in just a few hours. And for agriculture it is maximum alert. The collapse in temperatures, which came after weeks of record heat which favored the explosion of blooms and caused the first little fruits to appear, is causing farmers to become agitated. In the Tuscan countryside there are fears that the sudden drop in the mercury, expected in the next few hours together with the new disturbance, could irreparably damage the next harvests. A scenario that terrifies farmers who also have to deal with the nightmare of late frosts.

To say it is Coldiretti Tuscany after the return of the snow at high altitudes and the arrival of the disturbance which will bring with it a marked drop in temperatures in the coming days as noted by the Lamma Consortium. Temperatures that, in the fruit-growing district of Valdichianafor example, have already dropped to 2 degrees last night.

“The attention is maximum. The critical threshold is around zero. Below that we are at risk – he explains Letizia Cesani, president of Coldiretti Tuscany. The heat of these days has accelerated the flowering of the plants: the danger is for the vines, olive trees, fruit plants but also for the vegetables in the field. Late frosts are the other side of the consequences of climate change with mild winters that favor early budding followed by steep drops in temperatures in spring: conditions that make these events even more insidious. We are monitoring the situation together with all the provincial structures present in the territories and our technicians.”

The farmers, in front of the climate crisis, they have certainly not remained idle in recent years. More and more companies have equipped themselves by intervening both in the field with early pruning, for example, and with the use of technology such as fans and irrigation systems.

“In the countryside – explains the regional president – the agricultural companies are taking action and are ready, if necessary, to activate the entire arsenal available: from the anti-frost systems which consist in the nebulisation of water on the plants with the objective of creating a layer of ice on plant tissues in order to cause an igloo effect when lighting fires between the rows of vines to prevent temperatures from falling below the guard threshold. But more and more companies are resorting to insurance policies to protect their income because farming today also means having a new awareness of the risks. We work under the sky and this sky, due to climate change, is increasingly full of dangers.”

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