The abandonment of the countryside: in 20 years 1.3 million farmers have closed down

Although neglected, inland areas are by no means secondary. They occupy 60 per cent of Italian soil, are home to 48 per cent of municipalities and 13.6 million people call them home. But the process of abandonment is unstoppable: in the last ten years, the rate of depopulation of Italy's mountains and hills has grown twice as fast as the national average, and something like 330,000 young graduates between the ages of 25 and 29 have moved towards urban centres, fleeing for lack of services and opportunities.

"We need a national steering committee for the inland areas,' argues Cristiano Fini, president of Cia. A kind of extraordinary commissioner of the inland areas, in short.

"We need housing policies," explains Fini, "with incentives to buy or renovate houses. We need infrastructure for mobility and digitalisation, schools, kindergartens, health services. It would also be important to set up tax breaks for those who want to open a shop or a business'.

Months ago, the undersecretary for agriculture, Luigi D'Eramo, in collaboration with Unioncamere, announced a plan for the development of the country's inland areas, but at the moment we are only stuck on a couple of pilot projects.

At Fossoli di Corte Grugnatella, in the Appennines of Piacenza, Silvia Lupi's family runs the land that fed forty families sixty years ago. Today she is the only one left, rearing cattle and pigs: 'The European inventions are there,' she says, 'but the CAP is made to help big companies. The EU regulations on livestock farming have been tightened up, from animal welfare to biosecurity and the treatment of effluents. So, if you have few animals, investing is not worthwhile because you cannot amortise the costs'. At Fossoli, young people like Silvia, who is 39, have left and the houses are now only opened in summer, for holidays in the Trebbia Valley.

In order to combat depopulation, however, it is family farming that should be encouraged: 'Farmers in the inland areas must be given priority resources within the CAP,' said President Fini, 'for example, by giving higher scores to those who live in those areas and apply for European funds. Facilitating aggregation is also fundamental: 'We must encourage the creation of food districts,' adds Fini, 'and platforms for the direct sale of agricultural products. The tax credit for agricultural ZES has been extended for 2025: if more resources were available, they could become an interesting tool for the inland areas of southern Italy'.

On the Sila, in Calabria, Mario Grillo has, for example, networked some twenty farms that focus on country tourism and the direct sale of local products. Cheeses, and the famous Sila Igp potatoes. "As a network of companies,' he says, 'we have access to more European funds and the Region also supports us. But the costs are high and not everyone can make it: we were 32 companies, now there are only 20 of us left.