Italy has lost 30% of farmland in 50 years says Coldiretti

Rome: Italy has lost 30% of its agricultural land in the last 50 years as a result of construction and abandonment, according to a statement from farmers’ association Coldiretti on Earth Day on Saturday.

Cultivated land now amounts to 12.8 million hectares, said President Ettore Prandini.

The decrease in farmland impacts on the country’s hydrogeological resistance to landslides and flooding, production deficit and dependence on food imports, he added.

Coldiretti said that according to the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), 93.9% of municipalities are at risk of landslides and flooding.

For this reason, “Italy must defend its agricultural heritage and the availability of fertile land through an adequate social, cultural and economic recognition of the role of rural activities”, read the statement.

For this to happen investment in infrastructure and innovation and digitalization are needed.

In this respect, according to Prandini the EU-funded post-Covid National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) represents a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”, and “it is necessary to double the funds for agribusiness, which has shown that it can absorb the resources of those who are not able to spend”. (ANSA).