The vines in southern Ticino are severely affected by the current weather. Losses are inevitable. A look at the southern tip of Switzerland.
Water wanted: A tank trailer is used to irrigate the Ticino vineyards.
The display at the village pharmacy shows 36 degrees. It’s scorching hot this afternoon, like it’s been in southern Ticino for days. “It hasn’t rained for ages, and there haven’t been any thunderstorms like in Locarnese,” says Pierluigi Jelmini as he speeds through Chiasso-Pedrinate in his pick-up. It is the southernmost point of Ticino and all of Switzerland. The grapes, which Jelmini processes into grappa in its distillery in Mendrisio, ripen in a wonderful location outside the town centre.
But his worries are written all over his face. “The new seedlings have already died, three-year-olds are suffering, the older vines are just about to make it, but there’s still a month and a half until the harvest,” he complains. However, he also points out that not all vineyards are affected by the drought in the same way. “In some locations, the damage is less or not there at all,” says Jelmini, who presides over the Mendrisiotto farmers’ association.
The ground has dried up
The ground between the rows of vines shimmers yellowish, appears burned, some vine leaves are withered. “It looks like we used weed killer, but that’s a false impression: the soil just dried out,” says Jelmini. This is also confirmed by his colleague, the winemaker André Prada from the Caraccio winery, who also cultivates a few vineyards here.
The fact that a light breeze is blowing these days, which is not usually the case in southern Ticino, has further intensified the drying process. “We need water, but where are we going to get it?” asks Prada. The community’s water network has run out of resources. The use of drinking water is already restricted in some municipalities of the Mendrisiotto and reserved for domestic purposes only.
Now the canton has opened a water intake in Mendrisio San Martino that is no longer used, which is made available to farmers. But the farmers have to take care of the transport themselves. “It’s 12 kilometers from here, and still uphill, an impossibility,” says Prada. No rain is forecast for the coming days. He calculates that two-thirds of the grape harvest in his vineyards has been compromised by Pedrinate.
On the opposite side of the Mendrisiotto, in Castel San Pietro, we meet Davide Cadenazzi from the winery of the same name. He has already acted and is in the process of installing above-ground lines in his vineyards to provide drip irrigation for his vines. Since the beginning of the year, it has rained a total of only 219 liters per square meter, “as much as in a few days in the Magadino plain,” says Cadenazzi. He drove a barrel trailer to the vineyard with his tractor and will make use of the civil defense’s offer to provide water pumps. Thanks to the irrigation, it should be ensured above all that the vines do not die and that no new plantings are necessary.
“Save what can be saved”
“Thanks to such measures, a disaster can possibly be avoided,” said Sem Genini, secretary of the cantonal farmers’ association, to the local media, “we have to save what can be saved.” From a meteorological point of view, 2022 is already a major challenge for farmers and winegrowers in Ticino. Although it has rained once in the past few weeks and months, sometimes with heavy thunderstorms and showers, with the exception of southern Ticino, the situation is tense throughout the canton. A lack of snow in winter and above-average temperatures in May and June contribute to this.
However, compared to the Po Valley to the south, the situation in Ticino is still relatively relaxed. The worst drought in 70 years has been recorded there. The Po River has become a trickle. The rice fields in the Po Valley in Lombardy and in Piedmont lack the urgently needed water. It is feared that up to 30 percent of the harvest will be lost. With around 1.5 million tons, Italy is the largest rice producer in Europe.