A refund of less than 14 euros, precisely 13.83 cents, out of the 30 thousand requested, paid out more than a year after the flood of May 2023. This is what the Mordini farm in Riolo Terme, in the hilly area of Faenza (Ravenna), received from AgriCat - the fund of the Minister of Agriculture to which the government allocated 50 million euros, in parallel with the commissioner structure of General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo. The one who denounced the situation was Stefano Mordini, one of the owners. He had already done so at the beginning of July during a meeting with other farmers and trade associations in Pieve Ponte, in the Faenza area , to ask the government for urgent measures to support agriculture and the companies destroyed by the flood.
And he reiterated it in the last few hours to Il Fatto Quotidiano and some online media. " My company was seriously damaged by the flood - he recalls - However, we have not yet received any financial aid, except a payment of 13 euros and 83 cents from AgriCat". Like Mordini, there are many farmers who are still waiting for resources to "be able to start again".
According to data collected by Confagricoltura, in fact, of the 6,168 agricultural companies in the Ravenna area, 28-30% have suffered more or less significant damage from the flood, in addition to that related to the frosts of April 2023. The cold temperatures have also created serious problems for companies in the Ferrara area, in addition to those in the Modena and Ravenna area as well as in Bologna, Forlì-Cesena and Rimini, Reggio Emilia and Piacenza. As regards the disbursement of AgriCat compensation, 50% of the requests have been rejected. Of the accepted applications, only 2 out of 10 companies are, albeit very slowly, receiving a partial contribution, reports the regional president Marcello Bonvicini, who is asking for "urgent interventions" for Emilia-Romagna agriculture.
"The alarm raised several times in support of the regional fruit sector has gone unheard - President Bonvicini adds - to save a heritage that is disappearing, put to the test by years of prices at origin that are too low and phytosanitary problems without a solution to the point of reducing the cultivated surface from 65,000 to 41,000 hectares in less than twenty years". Precisely to try to overcome the impasse, the trade associations have put at the center a manifesto in 5 points that they define as "an essential road map for those who care about the still tormented territory".
Among the requests, a strategic plan to secure the territory starting from the hills, with structural interventions to maintain and consolidate the land; the simplification of requests and more streamlined procedures for appraisals and requests for compensation for damages to agricultural companies, in particular those in the hills also hit by landslides and mudslides. Farmers also ask for contributions to supplement income that truly meet their needs, the balance of the resources made available so far by the AgriCat fund, in which trade associations should be more involved to facilitate the provision of reimbursements.
(Online Union)
