According to the newspaper Olimerca, the Italian region of Puglia has given the green light to the planting of olive trees resistant or tolerant to Xylella fastidiosa through the ‘Extraordinary Plan for the regeneration of olive trees Puglia’ for the years 2020 and 2021, whose investment amounts to 40 millions of euros.
According to the president of the region, Michele Emiliano, “this is an important aid to compensate and revive a territory badly damaged by the bacteria”, which has already allowed the regeneration of more than 7,000 hectares of the territory of the province of Lecce, around the 10% of the trees uprooted, as published by Italia Olivicola.
The Puglia Region has, in fact, activated the intervention aimed at the ‘Replanting of olive trees in an infected area’ as foreseen in the ‘Extraordinary Plan for the regeneration of olives of Puglia’ for the years 2020 and 2021, approving the criteria and procedures for granting contributions provided for by the interministerial decree.
This measure, which will be published officially, will follow an agile procedure that is easily accessible to the beneficiaries, that is, farmers and olive tree owners through very simplified rules.
Priority will be given to lands located in the areas most affected by bacteria and, for the first time, small farmers will be given the opportunity to apply through their reference cooperatives and Producer Organizations. «The ultimate goal is to quickly distribute resources to those areas where it is no longer possible to implement eradication and containment measures to regenerate the economy and the landscape as soon as possible,» says Michele Emiliano.