As Olimerca reports, the threat that Xylella fastidiosa poses to the socio-economic well-being of the Puglia region is underestimated. This has been warned by the presidents of different delegations of Confagricoltura in the area, Confagricoltura Puglia, Confagricoltura Brindisi and Confagricoltura Lecce, Luca Lazzàro, Antonello Brun and Maurizio Cezzi, respectively.
As they have pointed out, since the bacterium was detected for the first time, in 2013, and, to date, it has affected about 150,000 hectares of olive groves in the provinces of Lecce, Brindisi and part of Tarantino.
And taking into account the average number of hours of work that olive trees require to maintain and harvest, around 33,000 jobs have been lost.
“At this point, to restore these places and the olive growing potential that was destroyed, the state and the region of Puglia should invest 3.3 billion euros, while only 300 million euros have been invested, an amount that is not enough «, indicate the representatives of Confagricoltura.
They recall that since the first outbreak of Xylella was detected, it has spread throughout the Mediterranean region. In Puglia, a subspecies of the bacterium, Pauca cepa De Donno, is responsible for causing a serious illness that leads to the death and destruction of thousands of olive trees.
The disease caused by the De Donno subspecies of Xylella has spread rapidly over the years due to the high population of Philaenus spumarius, the main vector of the bacterium in the region.
In addition, they highlight that the extensive planting of two susceptible olive cultivars, Ogliarola salentina and Cellina di Nardò, and the high density of olive trees in the region infected by the bacteria has further aggravated the problem.