From wine to apples, from corn to saltwater intrusion: climate rewrites Italian agrifood

Climate change is “rewriting” the Italian agri-food sector. This summer has been marked by extreme temperatures, widespread hailstorms, and drought conditions affecting almost every segment of the industry. This is the picture which emerges, and unfortunately it comes as no surprise, especially in light of the warnings raised in recent days by the agricultural sector. These concerns are also reflected in a survey carried out by Legacoop Agroalimentare among its member cooperatives, highlighting significant worries about the future.
This monitoring effort paints the picture of a production system under increasing pressure from climate change. “It is a system – underlined Legacoop Agroalimentare president Cristian Maretti – that is holding up thanks to investments made in previous years and to a spring season that, for once, worked in favor of businesses. Otherwise, the results would have been far worse. However, if we look to the future, we can’t assume things will always go this way, which is why structural action is needed”.
Further complicating the situation, Legacoop Agroalimentare explains, “there is the problem of saltwater intrusion, which in some areas extends for dozens of kilometers upstream along waterways, effectively making irrigation impossible. This phenomenon particularly affects the Po River basin, but it is also being recorded in Puglia and risks further compromising water availability in regions already most vulnerable to drought.
If no action is taken, added Maretti, food security itself is at risk: “the extreme data we are recording across Europe in terms of temperatures, wildfires, hailstorms, and tornadoes must serve as the starting point for a detailed analysis based on models projecting scenarios through to 2100. This would allow us to develop a plan of infrastructure investments capable of safeguarding the productive capacity of the agricultural sector. This is ultimately a matter of continental food security”. According to the president of Legacoop Agroalimentare, “this plan must place cooperation at its core because no agricultural enterprise can withstand the immense changes ahead on its own. Stronger cooperation is needed among Italian regions to avoid wasting available water and financial resources, and stronger cooperation is also needed among European countries in order to harmonize intervention tools and make them complementary to EU measures. Furthermore, “greater cooperation is needed between agricultural businesses and cooperatives, which often face the same challenges but could jointly invest in higher-level research and innovation tools to develop more resilient crop varieties and large-scale technological infrastructure”.
Regarding the findings of an internal survey carried out among Legacoop Agroalimentare cooperatives, “in the wine sector – explains Legacoop Agroalimentare – harvesting is taking place earlier than ever before. The production losses recorded this year are due more to the widespread hailstorms that have affected the territory than to drought itself”.
In the fruit and vegetable sector, meanwhile, “production has declined, with smaller fruit sizes and, where anti-hail netting is not in place, sunburn damage caused by high temperatures. Even areas traditionally considered less exposed, such as Trentino, have not been spared. Heat-related sunburn is forcing producers to divert part of their output to the processing industry, resulting in a significant loss of value for the fruit”.
As for the livestock sector, Legacoop Agroalimentare adds that “it too is experiencing a decline in milk production, but the situation has not deteriorated dramatically thanks to investments made in previous years in animal welfare – including fans and cooling shower systems in barns – which have prevented a full-scale collapse. It is also worth noting that thanks to a rainy spring, the first forage harvests were of excellent quality and quantity, easing concerns for the time being about the availability of feed rations for livestock”.
Among the hardest hit crops of all, there is corn, “which is now effectively impossible to grow without irrigation”. With regard to alfalfa destined for dehydration, “after an excellent first cut, subsequent cuttings and the production of pure alfalfa are recording very poor yields, often below one tonne per hectare due to drought conditions. As for alfalfa seed production, the main concern is not so much drought as the extreme heat peaks during the fruit-setting stage. This year the situation is slightly better than last year, but yields still remain below historical averages”. The vegetable seed sector is also feeling the effects of the heat. “To date, around 70% of specialized seed crops have been harvested, with sporadic hail damage that remains within normal levels, while high temperatures are causing yield losses, particularly for onions and carrots. Cabbage production, on the other hand, is in line with expectations. Key crops such as hybrid chicory and cucumber still need to be harvested, and product quality data have yet to be assessed”.
The situation is also delicate for aquaculture. Legacoop Agroalimentare pointed out that “for clams, no mass mortalities have been recorded so far, although the situation in the Goro Lagoon remains critical. The outlook is different for offshore mussel farming, where a significant die-off of mussels occurred last week due to elevated water temperatures. Water takes longer to heat up, but this summer temperatures have reached 30°C in the Adriatic Sea and 29 Celsius degrees in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and this cannot fail to have an impact on the long-term physiology of the entire marine biological system”.

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