Meager winter snowfalls in the Alps, which affected the flow of water from the mountains in northern Italy, and more than six months with almost no rain since then, have left the crop of high-quality Carnaroli rice, used for risotto and Selenio. preferred for sushi and soups, on the verge of failure. “Neither my father nor I have ever seen anything like this,” said the 52-year-old whose family has leased the traditionally fertile land in the Lombardy region for half a century. “If it doesn’t rain for at least five days soon, we’ll lose everything.” The parched fields of Camisani are victims of the severe drought that has hit the agricultural heartland of northern Italy, the worst climate event since at least 2003, when a massive heat wave and drought killed 30,000 people and destroyed agricultural production. Italian officials tasked with monitoring the flow of rivers say the water shortage is the worst in 70 years. The crisis, which threatens the country’s hydropower capacity as well as its agricultural output, is the latest setback for Italy’s struggling economy and will exacerbate already mounting inflationary pressures as the country reels from the fallout from the war. of Russia in Ukraine. Farmers and climate activists say this is not a horrific event, but a sign of things to come as once rich, fertile areas of Italy face continued pressure from climate change water scarcity. “It’s not just that we were unlucky in the summer of 2022,” said Luca Iacoboni, head of the national program at Ecco, a climate change think tank. “It’s not just ‘bad weather’, it’s a consequence of climate change and something that’s going to get worse and worse in the coming years.” Italy is Europe’s largest producer of rice, growing specialized varieties mainly in Piedmont and Lombardy at the foot of the Alps using a system of irrigation canals that channel water from the mountains. Northern Italy’s Pa River Valley produces about 14 percent of Italy’s agricultural output, much of it from the animals that produce the country’s famous hams and cheeses. However, the lack of rain means that parts of the river have dried up completely. Last weekend a glacier collapsed in the Dolomites amid heatwave, triggering an avalanche that killed at least 10 hikers. A rescue helicopter flies on July 4, 2022 over the glacier that collapsed the day before on the Marmolada mountain, the highest in the Dolomites © Pierre Teyssot/AFP/Getty Images According to a warning issued in March by the EU’s Global Drought Monitor, Italy’s reservoir levels were the lowest since 1970. Water in the picturesque northern lakes of Como and Maggiore, which are normally fed by melting Alpine snow, is also a fraction of normal levels, at 26 and 12.4 percent respectively. The level in Maggiore is the lowest since the 1940s. Italian farmers are counting the costs. Coldiretti, Italy’s national farmers’ confederation, estimates the water shortage has already caused 3 billion euros worth of damage, with grains such as rice, corn and durum wheat, used in pasta, particularly hard hit. Animals suffer from heat stress, with dairy cattle in areas with unusually high temperatures producing significantly less milk. The growers’ association estimated that a third of the country’s agricultural production is at risk. “We have about 30 percent less milk production and about 30-40 percent less cereal and corn production,” said Fabio Bonaccorso, Coldiretti spokesman. He warned that Italian farmers would be forced to import maize to feed livestock, adding pressure to an already tight global market struggling to cope with the disruption to Ukraine’s grain and grain exports caused by the war. “If you don’t have enough corn, you have to pay to buy crops from abroad because you have to feed the animals,” he said. “Without animal feed you cannot produce milk. It’s a chain.” The bank of the river Pa in the village of Ficarolo, in the Veneto region, where water has been impounded amid the worst drought to hit northern Italy’s rivers in 70 years © Andrea Pattaro/AFP/Getty Images Camisani said the stalks of Carnaroli rice were normally waist-high by now, while Selenio would reach his knees. But the few surviving plants barely graze his ankles. Across northern Italy, municipalities have imposed restrictions on water use in response to the drought, with some barbers not washing customers’ hair twice in a single visit. Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government has declared a state of emergency in five regions, including Lombardy, with an initial aid allocation of 36.5 million euros for the worst-hit areas. But along with the emergency relief, Coldiretti said Italy needed to invest in large-scale water storage capacity to collect rainfall, most of which is lost in runoff each year. “It’s a strategic decision for the future to address this climate change,” Bonaccorso said. “We have to spend money on a new kind of irrigation and a new kind of farming.” In Binasco, Camisani worries about how he will spend the year as the drought coincides with sharp increases in fertilizer and energy prices. “I don’t even know if we’ll be able to pay the rent on the fields,” he said. But the farmer also questions the future of agriculture in a once-rich region that depends on melting increasingly scarce Alpine snow to fill its irrigation networks. “We had this incredible resource — water — that was never scarce,” he said. “Between the weather and the war, it’s the perfect storm.”
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