“The timing for planning new interventions to counter the proliferation of grasshoppers in the territories of central Sardinia, between Nuorese and Oristano, are really tight if we want to secure the next agricultural season . The Region immediately activates a working table with agricultural trade associations, universities, provinces and agricultural agencies so that the activities to be started as early as the end of August are planned ”. This is the appeal that comes from the president of Confagricoltura Sardegna , Paolo Mele .
"According to the experts who have been following the fight against grasshoppers for months - adds Mele - we must already intervene with light plowing of the fields, with a depth of 5 or 6 centimeters, so as to bring the larvae to the surface and make them die in contact with the air. . These are operations that would make it possible to strongly contain the number of these insects that have devastated pastures, fodder and other numerous agricultural crops. A sort of pre-intervention , therefore, which would significantly reduce the use of pesticides , with an environmental impact that is certainly more environmentally friendly for the good health of animals and plants ".
"To start these activities - Mele specifies - it is however necessary that the Region, and specifically the Department of Agriculture, intervene with measures dedicated to freeing these territories, with the derogation formula, from commitments already undertaken on the management of the fields , for example following some measures of the Rural Development Program such as Soil Defense, which bind agricultural entrepreneurs to follow methods of cultivation of the surfaces where they should intervene with plowing against grasshoppers. It is therefore necessary that in the next 40 days all necessary actions are carried out so as not to cause further problems and damage to companies already affected by this calamity ".
Confagricoltura Sardegna is not new to this kind of appeals and was the first to remind the institutions that careful and respectful prevention of intervention times is the basis for the success of the activities to combat the various epidemics with which farmers and farmers find themselves fighting. Sardinian breeders. " Compensation for damages, when and if they arrive, never cover the real losses faced by our companies, so the prevention of these disasters is the only real winning recipe to secure the work of thousands of workers in our sector. . Finally - the conclusion of the President of Confagricoltura Sardegna - it is necessary to continue with the monitoring of the presence and movement of the swarms. In fact, there are several reports that come to us on grasshoppers registered in new territories, where up until this year they had never pushed themselves ”.
(Unioneonline / vl)