Città dell'Olio: "Three proposals to combat abandonment"

Un national plan for the recovery of abandoned olive groves, with tax benefits for individuals and companies that take action in this sense e additional resources for those Municipalities which will adopt specific measures to encourage such interventions. These are the requests that Città dell'Olio renews a National government and Regions following the publication of the 7th Agricultural Census which certifies a reduction of hectares for olive growing below the psychological threshold of one million.
“Abandonment – ​​he maintains the president of Città dell'Olio, Michele Sonnessa (in the picture) – is a serious and worrying issue for our olive economy and our territories. It concerns a so-called marginal but strategic olive growing in consideration of the high environmental and landscape value it has and the consequent benefits produced for the entire community also in terms of maintaining the communities in a given territory”.
Like Città dell'Olio, recalls the president, abandonment is a drama and an emergency to be faced immediately. A "heavy" phenomenon that concerns 30% of land (national average) with peaks of 60% in regions such as Liguria which translates into hydrogeological instability, loss of biodiversity, fire risk, loss of high-value olive production, loss of historical identity, as these are secular and millenary olive trees. Hence the action: “Promoting initiatives to combat the abandonment of olive groves is an opportunity to trigger virtuous circles between the social and productive dimensions, even beyond the classically understood social agriculture initiatives. The latest law for olive growing provides for 20 million to support neglected crops. These are few resources, but it's always a start! These are resources that obviously go in the right direction but are dedicated, and it is understandable, to producer organisations. The real problem, however, is the abandoned olive trees on private land that are not the recipients of this measure!"