Italian risotto production is being affected due to the presence of flamingos, also known as firebirds, in the rice fields in the northeast of Italy. These flamingos are posing a threat to the growth of the rice used in this dish, causing distress among local farmers.
According to reports from the Associated Press, the rice fields in the Ferrara province produce the rice used in making Italian risotto. However, the recent arrival of flamingos in the area has enraged farmers due to the damage they cause to crops.
To cultivate this short-grain rice, local farmers typically flood the fields in late spring and early summer to allow the seeds to germinate. While flamingos are not interested in rice seedlings, they disturb the soil with their webbed feet to search for soft-bodied animals, algae, or insects in shallow water, thereby damaging the growth of the rice.
Currently, local farmers have started patrolling day and night, attempting to scare off the flamingos from the fields. They use truck horns, bang on water drums, and even fire small air cannons to create thunderous booms. However, these efforts mostly only succeed in moving the flamingos to nearby fields.
Enrico Fabbri, a 63-year-old local farmer, expressed his frustration, stating that the yield loss in some of his rice fields has reached up to 90%.
Fabbri said, “These are all new things, never happened before. You invest so much time and energy to prepare everything. And then, just as the crops are beginning to grow, it’s like a newborn being taken away. That’s the feeling.”
Massimo Piva, 57-year-old vice president of the local farmers’ association, pointed out that while flamingos may look beautiful in the paddy fields from an environmental perspective, it is important to remember that rice is one of the most expensive and extensive crops to grow.
He said, “They are beautiful animals, and that’s their way of living and behaving, but the issue is to limit their presence as much as possible.”
These flamingos seem to have come from nesting sites in the neighboring Comacchio valley, located along the River Po, Italy’s longest river that flows into the Adriatic Sea from the south, forming a protected area.
Roberto Tinarelli, chairman of the AsOER association of ornithologists in the Emilia-Romagna region, explained that these birds have been present there since 2000, as drought in southern Spain has forced them to seek nesting sites further east.
Tinarelli mentioned that flamingos were previously mainly found in North Africa, certain regions of southern Spain, and some lakes in the Camargue region of France.
In addressing the issue of flamingo invasion in the rice fields, Tinarelli proposed several humane and effective solutions, such as planting tall trees or hedges around the fields or lowering the water level in the paddies from 30 cm to 5 to 10 cm.
He stated that this would ensure the growth of rice, but it would certainly reduce the attractiveness for flamingos that need to splash water while foraging in the fields.
In a previous report by Dajiyuan, unlike the typical boiled rice, Italian risotto is prepared by slowly “stirring” raw rice with broth, requiring a lot of experience and judgment throughout the process, making it prone to failure. To avoid mishaps, one should be aware of common mistakes people often make, such as choosing the wrong rice, using the wrong oil, burning the vegetables, using cold broth, or over-stirring.