Rising salt wedge, loss of soil fertility, and subsidence due to the gas methane extraction occurred in the 20th century represent existential challenges for the coastal agriculture of the Po Delta.
This land, redeemed from the marshes and the sea, has developed a high-quality agriculture with peaks of excellence in horticultural production and rice cultivation.
Day by day, Consorzio di Bonifica Delta del Po manages water for irrigation and ensures hydraulic safety in a territory that is up to four meters below sea level. The exchange of knowledge and good practices with universities, international research institutions, and agri-environmental companies represents a strategic aspect for the consortium, necessary to acquire innovative tools and methodologies for preserving the agriculture of the Po Delta.
The main focus is on rice fields, which have been characterising the environment and landscape for decades, and now are threatened by the climate crisis more than any other crop. Nowadays, the Po Delta is an open-air laboratory on issues related to coastal agriculture. A laboratory that attracts scholars from all over the world.
Team up with Phito to support coastal agriculture
The partnership with Phito represents an opportunity to systematize highly innovative research initiatives. Consorzio di Bonifica Delta del Po is cooperating with TESAF – Department of Forestry Sciences of the University of Padua, coordinated by Paolo Tarolli, professor of Agricultural Hydraulics, to study the problem of salt propagation in watercourses and soil and identify solutions for agriculture.
The experimentation uses big data collected by probes on the ground, detectors in watercourses, and satellite images, processed in real time, with Artificial Intelligence tools.
The potential of the Phito App appears to be completely functional in sharing the data collected with the farmer, analyzing, and converting it into easy-to-consult and ready-to-use information.
Good practices, good partnerships, and resilient coastal agriculture
Intending to share good practices, on March, 4th the consortium, represented by the president Virginia Taschini, and the director Rodolfo Laurenti, welcomed Dr. Anton Pijl of the company Cambisol, partner of Phito, together with the TESAF researchers Colleen Rose Pezzutti and Eugenio Straffelini for a guided visit in some of the most significant places of the Po Delta.
The visit began at the Ca’ Dolfin pumping station that keeps a large area of the municipality of Porto Tolle dry. The group then moved to Volta Vaccari, where a dead branch of the Po has been transformed into a freshwater resource basin that is valuable for irrigation and environmental protection.
The first part of the visit ended at the anti-salt barrier on the Po di Tolle. The structure, unable to cope with the increasingly weak flow of the river during dry periods, will be replaced by a new barrier that will be built on the main branch of the mouth of the Po, the Po di Pila, which will also make up for another barrier currently in operation on the Po di Donzella. The second part of the visit took place in a local farm (Azienda Taschini) that has found in the circular economy the key to developing agricultural production and livestock farming activities.
