Italian agricultural adaptation to extreme heat

Agricultural producers in Italy are facing significant challenges due to extreme heat and drought, particularly affecting tomato crops in Puglia. Farmers have been forced to adapt by using protective covers to prevent fruit sunburn and by shifting labor hours to the night or dawn to manage water stress and intense solar radiation. There have been calls for economic support, such as the ‘cassa integrazione’ wage guarantee fund, to assist businesses facing activity suspensions.

In response to these climate pressures, technological and biological adaptation strategies are being implemented. In Umbria, farmers are utilizing biomimicry and natural selection to develop resilient crop varieties by saving seeds from plants that survived previous droughts. Additionally, researchers in Puglia and Calabria are testing agrivoltaic systems, which combine solar panels with crop production. These systems have demonstrated the ability to reduce soil temperatures by more than 20°C, providing a potential method to mitigate environmental stress for crops such as olives, figs, and lemons.