Water shortage has always been a problem in much of southern Italy. However, between droughts and rising temperatures, the problem is worsening. The agricultural world is imagining strategies to adapt to this new situation. This could involve increasing the capacity for collecting rainwater. Or managing soils with organic substances derived from by-products of oil production, for example. Some solutions are already being tested.
While many English people know where Tiggiano is, a small village of fewer than 3,000 inhabitants in southern Italy, it is thanks to Helen Mirren, the Oscar-winning actress for The Queen, who spends many months there each year. But Puglia (the Italian name for Apulia) is not just a tourist destination. Its economy is the most dynamic in the south, and it is a very important agricultural region.
A small agri-food power
Apulia is indeed the leading Italian producer of olive oil, and a significant portion of the durum wheat and tomatoes used for pasta and sauce by Italians comes from there, particularly from the province of Foggia. This region is also known for its fruit production, the quality of its vegetables, as well as its dairy products.
However, agriculture everywhere needs water. But this resource is becoming increasingly scarce. A few days ago, Coldiretti, the main farmers' organization in Italy, raised the alarm: Puglia is “thirsty. With dry fields for the irrigation season that does not start due to empty reservoirs” and “run-down and halted facilities.” The shortage in this region of southern Italy is not new: Puglia has never been a rainy region. Rainfall ranges between 700 and 500 millimeters per year, or even less. Pasquale De Vita, head of the Foggia office of CREA (Research Center for Cereal and Industrial Crops), explains that “drought has been a structural element of Puglia's climate since antiquity”. However, the disappearance of livestock since the early 19th century, the abandonment of agro-sylvo-pastoral practices, and massive deforestation “have profoundly altered the hydrogeological balance of the territory, causing phenomena of erosion, desertification, and reduction of organic matter in the soils,” he continues. Indeed, 57% of the arable land in Apulia is now threatened by desertification.
The harms of drought
When agriculture began to prevail over livestock, durum wheat became one of the main crops here due to its ability to develop “by taking advantage of winter rains and completing the cycle before the arrival of summer heat”, De Vita points out. “However, today, the phenomenon of drought is occurring with increasing frequency and intensity, amplified by ongoing climate change. This poses new challenges to the resilience of local agriculture”.
Farmers are well aware of this. Alfonso Cavallo, president of the regional section of Coldiretti, provides an overview: “Due to the severe drought last year, beekeepers saw their honey production cut in half and the olive harvest dropped by more than 40% compared to the previous year. Other crops, such as cherries and wheat, also suffered similar losses.” This year, the situation has even worsened: “2024 is the worst year in terms of water availability in Puglia. Now, the volumes of water held by the reservoirs are only half of those from last year,” observes Cavallo.
Storing rainwater and restoring wetlands
It is clear that it rarely rains in Puglia. Rainfall patterns are changing due to the tropicalization of the Mediterranean climate: they are becoming shorter but much more intense. The problem is that 89% of the precious water that falls is lost due to insufficient infrastructure, or too old and in need of repair. And according to Paolo Tarolli, a full professor of agricultural hydraulics at the University of Padua, “it is essential to store rainwater and, conversely, to avoid making more wells. If too much water is drawn from aquifer areas, especially in coastal areas, it risks causing unprecedented ecological damage. This draws water from the sea: salty water enters the aquifer, pollutes it, and makes this groundwater unusable for decades.”
An internationally recognized expert, Professor Tarolli proposes avenues to address the challenges at hand. “The most sustainable and nature-friendly solution is to restore or maintain wetlands.” There are several examples of this in Apulia. In addition to being a refuge for many species of flora and fauna, they are natural reservoirs of fresh water that can be utilized during periods of drought. “Another possible strategy is to design micro-reservoirs at the farm scale, which allow for the collection of rainwater in spring that will be used in summer for emergency irrigation,” he details.
Regenerative agriculture and vegetation waters
Another solution, on which there is broad international consensus, notes Tarolli, “is to enrich the soil with organic matter, for example through regenerative agriculture practices. This is because a soil rich in organic matter retains more water, thus requiring less irrigation during drought periods. At that time, if a farm is also equipped with a micro-reservoir, it has a reserve of water in case of need.”
Some initiatives are already underway. On one hand, explains the president of Coldiretti Puglia, Alfonso Cavallo, his organization and the National Association of Reclamation have developed a project to create “a system of storage basins with a pumping system that would ensure water reserves during drought periods, but also limit the impact on the soil from increasingly violent rains and storms.” On the other hand, Cavallo happily points out that, thanks to a recent change in the regulation, it is now possible to use vegetation waters (composed of the water naturally contained in olives, water added during the process, and organic compounds) from olive mills throughout the entire production year rather than just during a few months. A true circular economy, these vegetation waters are the result of the production process of virgin oils. It is estimated that they represent between 85 and 135 liters for 100 kilos of processed olives: significant volumes of water rich in phosphorus and potassium, substances that are extremely nutritious for the soil.
Maintaining existing facilities
Here and there, small advances are allowing for the recovery of previously lost water. But the fundamental question remains that of maintaining and restoring the reservoirs built in the past, so that they are truly operational.
We cannot sit idly by. If Italians, and tourists from around the world, do not want to see Puglia gradually turn into a desert, it is urgent to implement action plans to save local agriculture. Especially since it has been one of the drivers of the (moderate) prosperity of the region in recent decades.
Photo of the Day: A durum wheat field after harvest in Polignano a Mare © Francesca-Milano-Pexels