Italy is taking into account the catastrophic effects of floods on its agriculture. In the rich Emilia-Romagna, considered “the orchard of Italy”, thousands of agricultural hectares have been submerged under water, ravaging fields of cereals, market gardening, fodder for livestock. 5,000 farms are flooded. The damage due to bad weather is counted in billions of euros, to be added to the two billion estimated after the floods which have already hit the region at the beginning of the month.
With our correspondent in Rome, Anne Treca
The photo made the front page of all Italian newspapers. Amid dozens of pigs submerged in water up to their heads, a breeder called for help for his 3,000 animals trapped by the floods. Fifty died, and the rest were eventually evacuated. But for a farm spared, how many will be ruined?
Farmers are living a nightmare. Emilia-Romagna is the leading production region for wheat and sugar beet. With this second wave of flooding in 15 days, 400 million kilos of wheat have already been lost.
The region is also a champion in the export of apples, pears and plums. We are talking here about the “Fruit Valley”, (“the valley of fruits”), which generates more than one billion euros in annual turnover. But the roots of the plants rot under the mud. There will be almost no harvest in 2023, and those of the next few years are compromised.
If we also count businesses in the agricultural sector, a total of 50,000 jobs are in danger of disappearing. A food, economic and social disaster.
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