by Angelo Amante
ROME, June 17 (Reuters) – The regions of northern Italy risk losing up to half of their agricultural production due to drought, amid concerns about the level of lakes and rivers in the country, alerted on Friday the Italian Farmers’ Confederation.
The federation of Italian utility companies, Utilitalia, said this week that the country’s longest river, the Po, was experiencing its lowest flow in 70 years, with areas completely dry.
Other Italian rivers are also much lower than normal at this time of year, said the association of irrigation consortia ANBI, adding that the current crisis highlights “the consequences of climate change in the peninsula”.
The Farmers’ Confederation (CIA) demanded immediate action, calling for emergency irrigation to save crops like tomatoes and watermelons and the creation of new infrastructure, including to collect and store rainwater.
“The total damage (is expected) already exceeds one billion euros,” the group said in a statement, adding that the lack of water could also threaten the production of corn and soybeans, the supply of which is already cut. under pressure from the war in Ukraine.
The governors of Piedmont and Lombardy, where part of agricultural production depends on the Po, said they would ask the government to declare a state of natural disaster due to the drought.
Abnormally high temperatures are reported across Europe. Scorching heat battered Spain at the end of last week, the earliest heat wave since 1981. Temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius were also reached in France. (Report Angelo Amante; French version Valentine Baldassari, edited by Sopgie Louet)
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