Italian farmers facing drought 'disaster'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Italian farmers facing drought 'disaster'*
ROME, Aug 2 (AFP) Aug 02, 2006
Farmers in northern Italy on Tuesday said they are facing disaster as
Europe's lingering heatwave burns up crops and leaves arable land
parched in the "breadbasket" Po valley, after a winter in which
unusually light Alpine snowfall failed to replenish reservoirs.
A prolonged drought has reduced parts of the northern river, which feeds
irrigation channels along the fertile valley, to their lowest levels in
living memory.
"Entire fields are destroyed stretching for hundreds of hectares, it's a
real disaster," said Ronaldo Manfredini of farmers' confederation
Coldiretti.
Growers' losses are estimated at around 500 million euros (640 million
dollars), according to Coldiretti.
"This winter, snowfall was light in the Alps, and very light rain was
recorded in the spring. Because of that, reservoirs are at their
lowest," Manfredini told AFP.
The 675-kilometre (420-mile) Po, the country's longest river, has
dropped a record 7.41 metres (24.31 feet) below its normal level, near
the city of Ferrara.
Another farmers' union, the Italian Confederation of Farmers, estimates
the drought has already caused significant damage to traditional crops
like cereals, maize, rice and soya.
Under pressure from farmers, the government introduced emergency
measures last Friday, declaring a state of disaster in the Po valley and
unleashing emergency reserves of water by opening dykes.
But experts are still concerned about water infrastructure in the
region, severely hit by a record drought three years ago.
"The north of Italy is poorly equipped (with reservoirs) structurally
for a simple reason, there has never been a need because the natural
reserves have always been good," said Giulio Tuffarelli, an agronomist
with Italy's national irrigation management unit, ANBI.
Another problem is that farmers are competing with hydro-electric power
stations for water, he said.
The 2003 drought reduced the output of hydro-electric power stations,
causing country-wide power cuts.
Farmers in southern Italy, where drought is an annual fact of life, have
adapted better than their northern counterparts, according to Tuffarelli.
"Reservoirs there are much more numerous for historical reasons,
otherwise agriculture simply wouldn't be viable," he said.
But farmers have also indirectly fallen foul of the centre-left
government's economic policy, which has stalled a 1.6 billion euro
"national irrigation plan" designed to overhaul the irrigation system
between 2006 and 2008, as priority is given to slashing a runaway public
deficit.