Italy's risotto heartland suffers from drought

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STORY: Italy’s risotto heartland is suffering from drought

Location: Candia Lomellina, Italy

Luigi Ferraris' farm harvests rice and corn in the province of Pavia

The area is renowned for its production of various types of risotto rice

But this year it's been hit by the country's worst drought in 70 years

(Luigi Ferraris, farmer) “This should be mud, instead it is dust. There is no humidity here, absolutely zero.”

“I’ve been working as a farmer for 35 years and I’ve never lived through a situation like this. As of today, in my farm I estimate a loss of 30 percent, because with the little water we have, we are not able to irrigate the corn anymore. We've had to abandon some rice fields, including this one that you can see here, because it is difficult to bring water to them as they're too far away. We are at the end of June, not at the end of August when the rice cycle is over. Rice is harvested in September and October, we still have July and August ahead of us - two hot months - my worry is that if it doesn’t rain, it's going to be a catastrophe.”