The scarcity of rainfall that has lasted for months is worrying not only for the effects on the future of the planet, but also for the damage – concrete and contingent – on economic activities, first agriculture. According to an estimate by Coldiretti, the damage caused by drought would amount to 2 billion euros: more than a quarter of the national territory (28%) is at risk of desertification and “is facing a situation of severe drought affecting the southern regions but also those of the North, where the great thirst besieges cities and countryside, with tankers and rationing of houses, orchards and gardens, dry rivers, emptied lakes and burnt fields ».
What is worrying, Coldiretti specifies, is the reduction in production yields of crops in the field, such as wheat, which this year marks a 15% decline in harvest yields, but in “very serious difficulty” there are also sunflowers, corn , and other cereals, the now dry pastures for animal feed and vegetables and fruit, such as citrus fruits in the south that need irrigation.
The cultivation choices have also changed in the countryside – underlines the note from Coldiretti – with an estimated decrease of 10 thousand hectares in rice sowing.
The lack of forage to feed the animals is also worrying, given that the absence of rainfall has reduced yields, in some areas, by about a third. Furthermore, the heat of the last few weeks is putting the animals in distress on the farms, where the cows, due to the high temperatures, are producing up to 10% less milk due to stress.
“A national emergency that – underlines Coldiretti – concerns crops and farms overwhelmed by a climatic catastrophe that is even worse than that of 2003, which decimated national agricultural production”. Above 22-24 degrees, animals eat little, drink a lot and produce less milk. For this reason – the association notes – the anti-heat countermeasures have already been taken in the stables where the drinkers work at full speed because every single animal has come to drink with the high temperatures of these days up to 140 liters of water a day against 70. of the less hot periods.