Risotto rice under threat from flamingoes in north-eastern Italy

An unusual bird is ravaging crops and infuriating farmers in north-eastern Italy: the flamingo.

Flamingos are relatively recent arrivals in the area, and have settled into the flooded fields that produce rice for risotto in Ferrara province, between Venice and Ravenna.

The birds aren’t targeting the rice seedlings but use their webbed feet to stir up the soil and snatch molluscs, algae or insects from the shallow water. The rice is collateral damage.

Now farmers have started patrolling day and night in an effort to scare the birds away from their rice crops. The farmers honk truck horns, bang barrels and even fire small gas cannon that make thunderous booms. However, the noise mostly just sends the flamingoes flying to another nearby paddy to trample it underfoot.

Enrico Fabbri, a local grower, said he was discouraged after seeing production losses of as much as 90% in some of his planted areas.

“These are new things that have never happened before. You invest so much time and care into preparing everything,” Fabbri, 63, said beside one of his paddies on the outskirts of Jolanda di Savoia. “Then, just as the crop begins to grow, it’s like having a newborn child taken away. That’s what it feels like.”

The flamingos appear to have come from former nesting grounds in the nearby Comacchio valleys, in a reserve on the coast just south of where the Po River, Italy’s longest, flows into the Adriatic Sea.

The birds have been there since 2000, after drought in southern Spain sent them searching for nesting grounds farther east, according to Roberto Tinarelli, the president of AsOER, the Emilia-Romagna ornithologists’ association.

Previously, the flamingos had been based in lakes in north Africa, parts of Spain and some of the Camargue region in France, Tinarelli said.

There has been no research yet into why these flamingos started seeking food farther inland, where farmers flood their fields for a few weeks from late spring to early summer as a means of germinating newly planted rice seeds. Until the paddies are drained, the flamingos are a threat.

“Obviously, we are looking for answers from those who have to deal with the problem. From an environmental point of view, all this is beautiful, but we must keep in mind that rice cultivation is among the most expensive, extensive crops,” said Massimo Piva, 57, a rice grower and vice-president of the local farmers’ confederation. “They are beautiful animals, it’s their way of moving and behaving, but the problem is trying to limit their presence as much as possible.”

Tinarelli suggested several humane and effective solutions to fend off the flamingos, such as surrounding paddies with tall trees or hedges and, even better, reducing the water levels of freshly planted paddies to 2-4in (5 -10cm), from 12in (30cm).

“This is sufficient for the rice to grow, but decidedly less attractive to flamingos, which must splash around in the water,” he said.