Hit by drought, Italy’s agricultural heartland feels the heat
POLITICO, July 2022
PAVIA, Italy — Under the scorching sun of a mid-July morning, Giovanni Daghetta walks across a dusty, barren plot of land on his rice farm in the province of Pavia, in Lombardy.
In a typical year, he’d be wading through 10 centimeters of water amid lush, waist-high rice plants. But today, the few stalks that have survived barely brush against his ankles, while the soil lies naked during the worst drought to hit the country in 70 years.
The problem is especially concerning in the Po Valley, where farmers like Daghetta rely on water coming from the Po River basin — Italy’s largest reservoir of fresh water — to irrigate their crops and raise livestock, producing some 40 percent of the nation’s food.
After months without heavy rainfall, compounded by a lack of snowfall during winter months and the early arrival of baking summer temperatures, the Po has now fallen to its lowest level in a century, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency in five northern regions and to enact restrictions including water rationing.
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