Compensation for agricultural businesses in Salento that have lost their olive groves due to Xylella has been extended from three to five years. The measure, through a specific motion presented by Paolo Pagliaro, was approved unanimously by the Legislative Assembly of Puglia, after approximately 6 thousand signatures in support had been collected.
In commenting on the news, Benedetto Welcome, president of CIA Agricoltori Italiani Salento and regional vice-president of CIA Puglia said: “These are two years of extra compensation which represent a precious breath of fresh air to be able to move forward. We need to be able to find the necessary resources to give the sector the opportunity to restart and recover part of the lost time. Considering that Xylella had arrived in Salento first, with these two years of additional compensation we wanted to re-establish the principle of equality according to which objectively different cases must be treated differently, as well as the criterion of proportionality and correlation between actual damage and compensation. We will continue to support agricultural entrepreneurs – concluded Accogli – to revive our land, whose value is not only agricultural but also landscape and environmental”.
