COCOONS. Poplar not only as the basis of an economy linked to furniture, but also as an engine of ecological transition, thanks to its effects on CO2 abatement and soil regeneration. This was the topic of the conference organized yesterday in Bozzole, an area where poplars have always been at home.
Strongly desired by the Asprolegno association and its Alexandrian headquarters chaired by Marco Brizio, with the secretary Fabio Fracchia, it also saw the presence of the regional councilor Marco Protopapa, the two regional presidents of the CIA, Gabriele Carenini and Confagricoltura Enrico Allasia, as well as by the provincial director of the CIA Paolo Viarengo.
If between the 70s and 80s the poplar growing sector suffered a slowdown, “now we are witnessing a recovery – explain Brizio and Fracchia – with a quantity of hectares of land increasingly devoted to this type of crop” . Many studies have, in fact, highlighted the ability of poplar to break down pollutants, even the smallest ones such as PM10, and to block the heavy metals found in soils. These are stopped in the trunks, avoiding the passage of harmful elements in plants that instead end up on the tables of consumers and of which the territory between Bozzole, Pomaro, Giarole and Frassineto is unfortunately rich.
«It is necessary to place the poplar at the center of an agricultural activity that must be supported and which will receive the utmost attention from the Region, with new resources and opportunities. We can no longer ignore the effects of climate change, ”said the regional councilor Marco Protopapa yesterday, with a speech shared by the two presidents of the trade associations Cia and Confagricoltura, Gabriele Carenini and Enrico Allasia, and by the CIA director Paolo Viarengo.
Marco Brizio, on the other hand, recalled how the landscapes of the plain are “enlivened by expanses of poplars”, without neglecting another very important function, also confirmed by Fabio Fracchia: the studies carried out by the former Pioppicoltura di Frassineto Po (now Crea, Centro di research in agriculture and analysis of the agricultural economy), after the floods of 1994 and 2000, confirmed less hydrogeological damage where poplar crops were present.
There has also been talk of European Union regulations that provide for the possibility of expanding arable land and the use of pesticides to eradicate Japanese bedbugs and beetles. Substances that on poplars “are used – says Fracchia – only in the first three years of growth”.