Lollobrigida: more than 15 billion to agriculture from the Meloni government

"The Meloni government is the executive that has invested the most in agriculture: over 15 billion euro. The main slice (8.9%) came from the Pnrr but it did not stop there'. The Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida, speaking at the Trento Festival of Economics, reviewed the main measures implemented in this legislature for the sector. 'In the past few years in Europe,' Lollobrigida explained, 'the idea had spread that some agricultural production and technical means such as fertilisers could simply be delegated to other countries and purchased when necessary. Then Covid first and the wars immediately afterwards showed us that such conduct is not without risk. That the supply of strategically important goods is not assured and a remedy must be taken'.

This is the logic behind the 'Coltiva Italia' measure currently being debated in parliament, which provides a substantial (over one billion) allocation of resources to strengthen sectors such as animal husbandry, olive oil and protein crops in which Italia is in deficit. "It is necessary to run for cover," he added, "also because Europe has not shown itself capable of responding quickly. On the contrary, it continues to build too many constraints that hinder the activities of entrepreneurs'.

Decisive in these years has been the role of the NRP. "An instrument that we have found and revolutionised," the minister added, "not only in the economic endowment, which has gone through three remodifications from 3.6 billion to 8.9. But also in the work we have done on the measures. We have abandoned some, such as the incentives for electric tractors, which turned out to be impracticable paths, and we have invested in logistics, supply chains, and agrisolar".

Among the measures recalled by Lollobrigida was the refinancing of the agricultural diesel subsidies (worth one billion a year), 'decisive aid with the fuel price increases of recent months', and the law against agri-food crimes, 'a measure,' he continued, 'that had been lying in the ministry's drawers for more than ten years and was much awaited by farmers.

The key theme of the Trento Festival of Economics is young people, and generational turnover is also a critical issue in the agricultural sector. "We have already mentioned," said Lollobrigida, "the 150 million euro provided by Coltiva Italia to facilitate access to credit for young agricultural entrepreneurs. A measure that is in addition to the Generazione Terra and Banca delle Terre initiatives managed by Ismea to accompany young farmers in accessing even the main factor of production: agricultural land,' he added.