This summer’s African heatwave, accompanied by a long period of drought, interrupted by a few violent rainfalls, is a danger even for hardy plants such as the olive tree.

From the Bosco di San Francesco comes alarming news: the olives grown in the vast olive groves at the foot of the Basilica of Assisi are already ripe by the end of September.

The olive harvest begins in late autumn; in some parts of central Italy, it used to begin on St Martin’s Day, 11 November, and the harvest had to be completed by Christmas, because after the festivities the “pizicaroli” – a dialect term for food sellers – were allowed to enter the olive groves to collect the fruit left on the ground or among the low-hanging branches.

But traditions aside, today the cycle of nature has been altered and we cannot help but wonder whether climate change is the cause of this advance in ripening that alters the time taken to produce oil and, more generally, what effects this phenomenon has on agriculture.

This summer’s African heatwave, accompanied by a long period of drought, interrupted by a few violent rainfalls, has brought fruit and vegetable production to its knees and is also having a significant impact on other crops, such as olives.

In particular, unseasonal frosts, sudden drops in temperature, prolonged drought and temperatures in excess of 40° can pose a threat to even the most resistant plants such as olives.

The spring of 2021 was dry, with temperatures dropping at times during the most delicate period of budding and flowering. The situation was exacerbated by a hot summer, which led to the few olives on the branches falling off.

Every year, olive growers are forced to deal with the increasingly bizarre weather conditions, and the autumn could bring violent rains that, right at the time of the harvest, could damage the crowns of the trees, causing the fruit to fall early and jeopardising the 2021 harvest.

THE OLIVE GROVE FROM ASSISI TO SPOLETO

The so-called ‘Olivata Belt’ extends from Assisi to Spoleto and has recently been nominated as a candidate for inclusion in the Unesco heritage as an ‘evolutionary cultural landscape’: the cultivation of olive trees in this stretch of the Apennine foothills, over 40 kilometres long, is the result of thousands of years of culture, not spontaneous nature. In fact, it is an example of an ‘evolutionary cultural landscape’, i.e. a combined work of nature and man.

Artistic, cultural, historical and traditional elements are immersed in the olive-growing landscape and coexist in equilibrium with the population, which for centuries has established a deep and indissoluble bond with the cultivation of olives and the production of olive oil.

The Bosco di San Francesco not only falls within this “Cultural Evolutionary Landscape” area, but is also located in a globally important agricultural and landscape zone in central Italy: in fact, the FAI property is located in the territory of the Municipality of Assisi, a UNESCO site, and since 2018 has been part of the FAO GIHAS – Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems area, as well as being an integral part of the Monte Subasio Regional Park.

AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change is jeopardising this historic balance and the production of oil – a key element of the Mediterranean diet – is already suffering.

From the Bosco di San Francesco olive groves, we obtain a balanced, fruity extra virgin olive oil that enhances the flavour of any food, maintaining its organoleptic properties for a long time thanks to its low level of acidity and bottling under nitrogen, all qualities that may no longer occur if the olives change their natural cycle due to climate change.

In Southern Europe, extreme heatwaves and reduced rainfall and available water will negatively affect agricultural productivity. Agricultural production is also expected to become more variable from year to year due to extreme weather events and other factors such as the spread of pests and diseases.

An alarm that we cannot continue to ignore.