{"id":1067996,"date":"2026-07-04T12:42:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1067996\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T12:42:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:42:32","slug":"italian-rice-crops-suffer-in-drought-worst-european-heatwave-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1067996\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian rice crops suffer in drought, worst European heatwave ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer came too early to Europe\u2019s most important rice-growing region, and weeds are taking over Sharon Angoli\u2019s parched paddies in Italy\u2019s Pavia province.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat one is done for, no matter what happens,\u201d the 22-year-old said as she surveyed one desolate field that has been baked by what is among the most severe heatwaves to hit the continent in June.<\/p>\n

Even abundant rains for the rest of the summer would probably not save the crop, she said. Angoli and her father, Carlo, also fear for their other fields at Torre Beretti, about 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of Milan, that should be harvested in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need about 50 mm [two inches] of rain, but without hail,\u201d said Carlo Angoli. \u201cOr a big hailstorm in September and then the insurance will reimburse us,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

Pavia is at the heart of Italy\u2019s rice-making industry. The province regularly produces nearly five million tonnes of the grain each year.<\/p>\n

\"RiceRice plants struggle to grow in a paddy field overrun by weeds during a drought in Torre Beretti, near Pavia, Italy, on Friday. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n

But this year there was not enough spring rain and its rice farmers are despondent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summer came too early to Europe\u2019s most important rice-growing region, and weeds are taking over Sharon Angoli\u2019s parched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1067997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[19312,8791,292900,292848,292897,2000,299,5187,1699,2199,292895,292898,2927,160036,292894,292896,292846,292899],"class_list":["post-1067996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-adriatic-sea","tag-alps","tag-apennine-mountains","tag-carlo-angoli","tag-coldiretti","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-italy","tag-legambiente","tag-lombardy","tag-milan","tag-pavia","tag-piedmont","tag-po-river-authority","tag-sharon-angoli","tag-vercelli"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116861767700951331","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1067996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1067997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1067996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1067996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1067996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}