Prized rice varieties used for risotto are grown in northern Italy’s normally flooded paddies, but record heat and drought are causing devastation and consternation
As the days stretch on with little to no rain and fields bake under the summer sun, officials have taken measures to mitigate the crop damage. On July 4 Italy declared a state of emergency until the end of the year in five of the most affected regions and announced nearly $40 million to help struggling farmers.
“In my 30 years working with rice, I have never seen anything like this—not even my parents or grandparents,” says Spaltini, a third-generation farmer. Normally, farmers with insurance would be able to cover some of the costs of damaging climate events such as this one. But over the past years the vast majority of insurance companies decided not to cover droughts, says Greppi. He suspects this is because doing so in northern Italy has become far too risky and unprofitable for them.
Recently, Italy unlocked about $4 billion as part of an initiative to improve its water system, including the construction of emergency reservoirs across the northern region, says Prandini. Both of those projects would go a long way toward tackling the root of Italy’s problems, he acknowledges, but they will also take several years to complete.
Varying the kinds of crops farmers produce in northern Italy is another possible way forward, he says. Rice is widely consumed and has been cultivated in northern Italy for centuries, so shifting practices is no easy task. But farmers also need to face the harsh reality that rice cultivation in the current climate is quickly becoming untenable.
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