Flooded fields, slow sowing, and in many cases, no sowing at all. And again: difficulties with pruning and support work for open-field crops, orchards, and other types of agriculture.
January 2026 was particularly difficult for farms in central and southern Sardinia, particularly in the Oristano area. And February doesn't seem to have reversed the trend.
Coldiretti Oristano wrote this in a note where it expressed "deep concern about what is happening in the area due to the bad weather and incessant rains that have hit the island in recent weeks and which are creating enormous inconvenience for agricultural entrepreneurs."
"The effects," the farmers' association laments, "are already visible today on crops that were ready for harvest, but the worst could arrive in the coming weeks for all production."
"It's normal for it to rain in the winter or for it to be hot in the summer, but the effects of climate change are becoming evident in all their dramatic ways," emphasizes Paolo Corrias , president of Coldiretti Oristano. "The rainfall at the start of 2026 is truly exceptional and is causing serious difficulties for many businesses in the Oristano area and beyond, because the situation in the rest of the region is also very difficult."
<p>Bad weather brings agriculture to its knees (Coldiretti photo)</p>According to Coldiretti Oristano, the effects on crops in the fields today are immediately linked "to a loss of income for agricultural businesses and the concern is also the lack of possibility of being able to carry out further cultivations because it continues to be impossible to work in the fields and carry out new sowing or transplanting", adds the director of Coldiretti Oristano, Emanuele Spanò .
The result of this situation is that the risk of seeing many Sardinian products missing from the markets in the near future is "very real."
«On our part there is a strong concern because farmers now have to face increasingly higher production costs and increasingly limited and, in some cases, non-existent margins - specifies Corrias - we need a strong determination to want to tackle the problem immediately with streamlined measures without the burden of excessive bureaucracy that really allow companies to access compensation».
Coldiretti therefore believes it is essential for regional institutions to address the problem immediately. "The Region must decide what role the agricultural sector deserves in Sardinia, because it has been procrastinating for too long," adds Spanò. "It requires determination and a clear understanding of the tools needed to ensure companies can effectively invest in the region. Recapitalization of our agricultural businesses must be allowed so they can compete in an increasingly challenging market, especially when compared to low-cost products imported from abroad. Coldiretti's major battle for reciprocity also fits into this."
Coldiretti is therefore calling for clear timelines for calls for tenders and support: "Our companies need certainty about the application process, from submission to payment," Corrias adds. "If a company is worthy of public funding, it must be able to count on clear and defined timelines for the actual disbursement of resources. Today, however, we often find ourselves faced with situations where companies ranked in regional tenders wait for years, only to see everything come to nothing."
In this context, insurance could be a very effective tool for supporting businesses. However, "today, farmers struggle to insure their crops, not because they don't recognize its usefulness, but because the cost of premiums has become unsustainable. Furthermore, the subsidized portion that should be guaranteed by the Region, in many cases, reaches companies after three or four years ," the president and director conclude, "which means that a company is forced to pay two or three years' worth of insurance premiums upfront, turning this item into an unsustainable cost for the company budget."