• Coronavirus. Interior Ministry. Yesterday boom of reported, another 9 thousand

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April 05, 2020 "More than one Italian out of ten (11%) does not respect the indications and prohibitions in terms of leaving home, traveling and respecting social distances, as unfortunately shows the presence of too many people still outdoors". This is what emerges from a Coldiretti / Ixè investigation on the behavior of Italians in the time of the coronavirus. While leaving the house there are often fanciful justifications "but the most popular is undoubtedly the one where to shop". Despite the Coronavirus emergency and the invitations to stay at home "almost 1 in 3 Italians (30%) - underlines Coldiretti - cannot resist even 72 hours before having to go out to shop in shops, supermarkets and food". The result is that "in 38% of Italian homes, stocks of food and drinks were hoarded for fear of not finding them available on the shelves".

In the pantries, pasta, rice and cereals (26%), then milk, cheeses, fruit and vegetables (17%), then canned products (15%), meat and fish (14%) were accumulated, cold cuts and sausages (7%) and wine and beer (5%), according to Coldiretti / iXè. "A dangerous behavior for health, for waiting in long lines, but which favors speculation from field to table and also - highlights Coldiretti - food waste at a delicate moment for the country's food supplies".

A situation that "puts pressure on the work of over three million Italians who have been asked to continue operating in the food supply chain, from the countryside to industries to transport, to shops and supermarkets, to ensure continuity of food supplies and drinks to the population ".

"Agriculture, workers and machinery are missing"
The Covid-19 emergency, which is also confirming the strategic value of the agri-food sector, is however exposing all its fragility. "The forced stop to the agricultural mechanics sector aggravates the situation in the fields where with the beginning of the campaigns the lack of workers adds the difficulties for the supply of machinery, equipment and agricultural spare parts necessary for working on the land", says the president of the Coldiretti Ettore Prandini, who asks for "vouchers for workers and to include agricultural machinery in the list of essential products as foreseen in the emergency measures in all the other countries that have instead authorized the production of agricultural machinery precisely as it is functional to guarantee food supply ".

Moreover, stresses Prandini, "mechanization becomes a necessary choice at this time when the work supply of many of the 370,000 seasonal workers who came from abroad every year due to the blockade of borders has failed." So "simplified agricultural vouchers are needed immediately to offer job opportunities with integrated cash, retirees and students but also efficient technologies to guarantee the full operation of national agriculture", adds President Coldiretti.

Italian agriculture, says Prandini, "needs a robust injection of liquidity since an event of epic dimensions like the one that the whole world is experiencing cannot be tackled with normal interventions. If it is true that agriculture, processing and distribution industry they are holding on, there is no denying that many supply chains are in deep crisis. "

Like Coldiretti, concludes Prandini, "we have proposed a Marshall plan for Italian agriculture to majority and opposition forces with an articulated project that starts from the establishment of an extraordinary Covid-19 Fund for agriculture indicating a range of measures where it is possible find resources for some priority interventions ".