ROME (ITALPRESS) – “Agriculture is the beating heart of our economy and society. But more than anything, it is the basis of our hope for a better future.” This is how Confagricoltura President Massimiliano Giansanti concluded his speech at the winter assembly in Rome, launching a Competition Plan “to guide the agricultural sector toward a new phase of competitiveness, in which every decision and every action contributes to creating value, protecting the territory and strengthening our country’s position in international markets.” It is “a strategic initiative to redefine the future of Italian agriculture and position it as a global leader,” not just “a declaration of intent, but a real program of action that translates ideas into concrete results,” he stressed. “To transform agriculture into a more productive, sustainable and resilient sector, we need to adopt policies, innovations and resources that allow us to move from thought to action, from analysis to concreteness. The tools we have at our disposal must not only be adequate, but they must be geared to the long term, capable of addressing the challenges of the present and anticipating those of the future. “Among the main levers on which to act is the CAP, which “must be reformed to better respond to the challenges of the present and the future,” moving “from a merely redistributive approach to a truly strategic one that rewards those who invest in sustainability, innovation and competitiveness.” For Confagricoltura, “agricultural policies must adapt to the specific needs of territories, recognizing the climatic, economic, and production diversities within the European Union,” and “the CAP must be the engine of the ecological transition, supporting agricultural practices that protect soil, water resources, and biodiversity.” In addition, “climate change and market volatility make the creation of risk management tools increasingly urgent: we cannot leave our farmers alone in the face of unpredictable events,” we need “mutual funds” that “allow farmers to share the economic risks associated with extreme weather events or market crises,” advanced insurance models that “cover not only production losses, but also the costs associated with restoring assets,” and “targeted public interventions” with “a European regulatory framework that supports national emergency funds and ensures rapid responses in case of crisis.”It is then necessary to “accelerate the digitization of the agricultural sector, ensuring that every business can benefit from available innovations,” focusing on precision agriculture and “innovative technologies that optimize the use of resources such as water, fertilizers, and pesticides, ensuring lower costs and less environmental impact,” as well as on “digital platforms to connect farms with production and trade chains, improving traceability, efficiency, and planning capacity,” but also on “assisted evolution techniques (TEA), to develop crops that are more resilient and better adapted to climate change,” and on new frontiers in agriculture such as “vertical farming, which allows for increased production in terms of both quality and quantity, requires targeted strategies and adequate investment to unlock its full potential.” It is necessary “to put research at the center of our policies: only through innovation can we make agriculture more efficient, sustainable and competitive.” At the international level, “trade is an opportunity, but also a challenge: trade agreements must be tools to open markets, not to compromise our production model,” Giansanti stresses. It is necessary “to protect Made in Italy and other European excellences from imitations and counterfeits in global markets” and to adapt infrastructures “to a performing and competitive sector, integrated with a system of centralized agri-markets, as a characterizing element of a modern distribution system,” and agreements such as Mercosur “must ensure that imported products respect the same criteria of quality, food safety and sustainability required of European farmers.”On this issue, then recalled European Commission Executive Vice President Raffaele Fitto, “the agreement is signed,” but “we have all the conditions to identify elements that can meet the demands that come from the agricultural world, to give guarantees and certainty on certain aspects.” With Mercosur, then stressed the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, “it is obvious that Italy can have an overall gain, but with the sacrifice of some sectors that could be brought to their knees. They have to be sure that they have not been sacrificed for others.” Also speaking at the winter assembly of Confagricoltura was the Minister of Labor, Marina Calderone, who said she was “ready to set up a permanent table in which to put as a guiding thread the reform of labor in agriculture, looking at agricultural work that must become non-episodic and seasonal but must allow us to build a path to enhance professionalism and the link between companies and workers.”
– Photo xi2/Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
