In climate fight, Europe's olive, wine farmers turn to tech and tradition

Deoleo SA

14/09/2023 10:00

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      Southern European farmers forced to adapt to drought
    

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      Spain is expanding use of cover crops to halt erosion
    

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      Italians deploying technology to make best use of water 
    

  
    By Charlie  Devereux, Antonella Cinelli and Corina Pons
       VILLANUEVA DEL ARZOBISPO, Spain/ROME, Sept 14 (Reuters)
- F armers in Spain and Italy are turning to techniques ancient
and modern to safeguard production of regional favourites
including olive oil and Prosecco as climate change forces them
to rapidly adapt.
    In the face of extreme weather that has caused billions of
euros in losses in both countries, farmers in Spain are rapidly
rediscovering the traditional use of crops planted between trees
to protect the soil in olive groves, while Italian counterparts
are harnessing technology to make best use of water resources. 
    Spain and Italy are the world's top producers of olive oil
and but the industry is under threat from desertification and
drought, with Madrid saying more than a fifth of its land is at
high risk of becoming infertile.
    Italy, renowned for wines and pasta wheat, suffered one of
its most severe droughts in 70 years in 2022. This year has seen
another scorching summer, punctuated by damaging hailstorms in
the north, in line with scientists' predictions for climate
change in the region.
    The Italian farming industry is the European Union's
third-largest in terms of production value, behind France and
Germany but ahead of Spain, which is in fourth place.
    Andrea Ronca, who grows cereals for his family's cattle farm
in the province of Mantua in northern Italy, uses satellite
images to track where his land is driest.
    "I can adjust irrigation at any time, even from my
smartphone, avoiding any wastage," says Ronca, 35.
    Spanish farmer Miguel Moreno was an early adopter of
so-called cover crops. He began growing grasses alongside trees
almost 30 years ago to stop water draining away down the hill on
his 74-hectare olive grove in the southern region of Andalusia. 
  
    His son, Angel, said that before that large cracks would
form where the soil eroded.
    "You had to be careful because you could fit your foot in
them," he said.
    Cover crops are now used on about 30% of olive groves in
Spain, according to Spain's agriculture ministry, with
scientists and companies expecting rapid growth in the next few
years.
    The changes are being driven both by European Union
environmental incentives and stark realities. Spain's
drought-hit olive oil production slumped to 663,000 tonnes last
year, less than half the average of 1.45 million tons recorded
in the previous four harvests, according to the government. 
    Spain's largest olive producers co-operative Dcoop said it
expected a similarly low harvest for this year due to drought.
    Wine output in Italy is forecast to fall 12% this year after
extreme weather and fungal diseases hit vineyards, meaning Italy
will lose its position as the world's largest wine producer to
France.
    
    OLD REMEDIES
    Scientists say restoring cover crops such as grasses and
legumes in the rows between olive trees can act as a sponge to
conserve water, prevent flash floods and restore nutrients.
    In the short term, the practice may reduce yields but it can
increase oil quality and protect soil for future harvests, a
2019 study in the Journal of Nutrition and Plant Science found.
    Spain is already a pioneer in methods to save water, used in
almost every stage of olive oil production, said Gonzalo
Delacamara, director of the IE Centre for Water & Climate
Adaptation in Madrid.
    Cover crops "function as micro-reservoirs that mean each
drop of rainwater stays on the ground longer before running off,
so that water is more likely to penetrate," said Emilio
Gonzalez, a professor in rural engineering at the University of
Cordoba. 
    The bare soil still seen in most of southern Spain's olive
orchards was not always the norm.
    Tilling and clearing vegetation became widespread with the
introduction of industrial pesticides and fertilizers in the
1960s and 1970s, said Antonio Manzaneda, professor in ecology at
the University of Jaen.
    The European Union has a target of reducing nutrient loss by
50% by 2030. In January, it began subsidising farmers who use
cover crops as part of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
    The practice can restore biodiversity including insects like
the green lacewing, that in turn may help farmers control pests
such as the olive fruit fly and the olive moth, Manzaneda said.
    Olive farmer Angel said since introducing cover crops he
noticed an increase in birds such as owls, blackbirds, turtle
doves, hoopoes and reptiles such as the near-threatened
ocellated lizard.     
    
    CONSUMER PRESSURE
    Deoleo, the world's largest olive oil seller, bought 45% of
its supply last year from growers who deploy sustainable
practices including cover crops, Mariu Luchetti, Deoleo's global
marketing director and head of sustainability, said in an
interview.
    She said the company was pushed both by customers such as
Walmart in the U.S. and by regulation to buy olive oil from
producers using sustainable practices.
    Swiss-headquartered agrichemicals and seeds group Syngenta
began offering a cover crop seed mixture in Spain this year.
    Next year, it expects the practice to increase exponentially
"to combat the negative effects of drought," said Luis Miranda,
head of sustainable agriculture for Syngenta in Spain.
    Long periods of drought followed by torrential rains are one
of the main ways soil is eroded. 
    At Domingo Albacete's olive farm soil erosion has left
rivulets of rubble and stone. He now digs barriers with heavy
machinery to catch rainwater in puddles that seep into the earth
instead of stripping topsoil.
    Ecology professor Manzaneda is also coordinator of EU-funded
project SOIL O-LIVE and is testing methods for coaxing
Albacete's degraded earth back to health.
    In one, Manzaneda is applying charcoal made in an oxygen
vacuum, a method used by pre-Columbian Indigenous people in the
Amazon that tackles soil acidity and improves water and nutrient
retention.
        
    ITALY TURNS TO TECH
    In Italy, where practices like cover crops were already
widespread, more farmers are now pioneering digital technology
to give them an edge, especially in water conservation. 
    The extreme weather in 2022 caused damages estimated at 6
billion euros to farming, according to Italy's main farmers'
lobby Coldiretti. 
    The share of land farmed using digital tools rose to 8% in
2022, from 6% the year before, while spending rose to 2.1
billion euros, from just 100 million euros in 2017, according to
the Smart AgriFood Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic and the
University of Brescia.
            
    
    The change took time but has been driven by the need to save
water in an increasingly dry country, said Professor Marco
Trevisan, Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at the
Catholic University of Piacenza, and has been helped by a
flowering of agri-tech start-ups. 
    "We were late because we were used to having lots of water
at our disposal, especially in the north [of Italy]," he said. 
    Winemakers are among those adjusting to the new weather
conditions.
    "We are in the hills, where there is little water," says
Simone Rech, who produces about 250,000 bottles a year mainly of
Prosecco sparkling wine, in the province of Treviso, not far
from Venice. 
    In Rech's vineyard, sensors now monitor the air and soil to
gauge factors such as temperature and evaporation from the
leaves, measures he says helped the vineyard withstand last
year's drought. Rainwater and waste water from washing the
cellar is collected, purified and reused. 
    Similar initiatives are being adopted by Catalonia's Cava
producers in northern Spain.
    On Italy's southern island of Sicily, Sebastiano Conti has
helped reintroduce rice cultivation without flooding fields,
relying on technology to create gentle slopes which can
withstand the island's fierce climate.
    "With laser-guided machines, we created millimetric
inclines, which together with the type of soil we have allow us
to grow rice using very little water," he said.

    <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ISTAT - AGRICULTURE IN THE EU    https://tmsnrt.rs/3OCMNLS
SMART AGRIFOOD OBSERVATORY - DIGITAL AGRICULTURE INSTRUMENTS IN
ITALY    https://tmsnrt.rs/3KKUQoC
How climate change unfolded in 2022 Record breaking temperatures
in Europe    https://tmsnrt.rs/3XiONvr
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
 (Reporting by Charlie Devereux, Antonella Cinelli and Corina
Pons; Writing by Keith Weir and Charlie Devereux; Editing by
Frank Jack Daniel)