Lazio, the proposals for agriculture in the regional elections

Lazio

Agricultural production in Lazio is worth almost 7 billion euros, equal to 5.4% of the total value of national production. About 20% of the region's workforce, more than 54,000 people, are employed in agriculture. However, only one of the three electoral programs for the regional elections of 12 and 13 February indicates the extent of the funds aimed at financing a renewal of the sector.

Let us see specifically the proposals on agriculture of the candidates for the regional Lazio:

The centre-left and the third pole with Alessio D'Amato The 5-star movement with Donatella Bianchi The centre-right coalition with Francesco Rocca Who are the candidates in the Lazio regional elections The Zingaretti era is over, contending the presidency will be Alessio D'Amato, councilor for health, Francesco Rocca, president of the Italian Red Cross, and Rai journalist Donatella Bianchi. Here's who supports them

The center-left and the third pole with Alessio D'Amato

D'Amato's program for the development of the agri-food sector is the only one to present an economic cover to finance the proposed interventions. The total planned expenditure is 475 million euros, coming from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr) and the Rural Development Programs (Psr), co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the national budget.

Of these, 101 million are earmarked for improving the quality of agri-food products and animal welfare, 361 for sustainable and organic agricultural production and 13 for the development of logistics for wholesale agri-food markets.

The proposals contained in these three macro areas of intervention start from an administrative reorganization of the sector, closely linked to the collaboration between the region, research institutes and universities, and to the definition of a consolidated text of agriculture. We then move on to interventions to make agricultural businesses grow, by expanding the tools for accessing credit and promoting the use of new technologies for digital and precision agriculture.

The program therefore envisages the development and protection of certified, typical productions and bio-districts, social agriculture and urban gardens and the promotion of the short supply chain and typical products. Finally, measures are envisaged to integrate the production of renewable energy into the agricultural fabric, even if successful examples such as agrivoltaics are not cited, and to increase the territory's resilience to climate change, health shocks such as swine fever and bird flu. .

The 5 Star Movement with Donatella Bianchi

In the part of the program dedicated to agriculture, Bianchi underlines how the challenges to face are the "sustainability of production models and the territory, the maintenance or the increase in productivity, the decrease in waste and the balance between the rural and urbanized systems”.

To overcome them, the candidate first proposes to approve the Consolidated Law on Agriculture and digitize the Registry of Agricultural Businesses, the Single Control Register, the lists of diversification activities in a single database , the registers of the Agronomic Use Plan and of the National Agricultural Information System.

Still with a view to digital integration of the agricultural sector, the third point envisages the creation of a database for census and mapping of "uncultivated, abandoned or underutilized land of public and private assets to favor the recovery of production, through the sale, rental or free assignment" and the creation of "new business opportunities".

A distinctive feature of the program is the regional recognition of the Lazio hemp varieties and the financial support for the agricultural production of industrial hemp, for the production of "fabrics, paper, plastics, paints, fuels, materials for construction and also edible oil". However, as for the rest of the proposals, an expenditure forecast or a hypothesis of financial coverage is completely missing.

The centre-right coalition with Francesco Rocca

As in the case of Bianchi, also in Rocca's program the major absentees are a forecast of expenditure and a hypothesis of financial coverage. However, on the page dedicated to the agri-food sector of the centre-right candidate it is also difficult to find concrete proposals or clear sectors of intervention.

There is vague talk, among numerous typos, of "identifying programmes" for the recovery of disused agricultural structures and to evaluate the "making income" of "areas to be reused" and territories with "morphological difficulties". But without specifying how or with how many funds. Finally, reference is made to the "rationalization of the consumption of irrigation water", to implement "the actions relating to the rural development plan" and to simplify the "procedures for carrying out investments in the agri-food field".