The Sicilian Agroecology Coordination was born in 2017, following various meetings also held at the Sicilian Regional Assembly, in which it was deemed appropriate to give a decisive turning point to the Sicilian agricultural system.
The project, wanted by the ARS deputy Valentina Palmeri, began with the meeting of various experts and researchers in the sector, as well as various Sicilian associations and organizations.
The involvement soon led to the drafting of a Bill, edited among others by Guido Bissanti, and supported by various experts and researchers among whom it is worth mentioning the late Antonino Lo Bello, as well as Giovanni Caronia, Alfio Furnari, Giovanni Dara Guccione , Marina Giustiniano, Barbara Manachini, Giorgio Schifani and others.
During the drafting of the text and the beginning of the legislative process at the III Productive Activities Commission of the Sicilian Region, the Bill soon proved to be futuristic but above all perfectly centered on the political orientations on the matter, not only due to the presence, since since 2015 of Agenda 2030 but also because, in the meantime, the European Green Deal (2019) and the two Strategies: Farm to Fork and Biodiversity 2030 had arrived.
Objectives which include, among others, a 50% reduction in the use of biocides and the risk they represent by 2030, a 50% reduction in the use of the most dangerous pesticides by 2030, the protection and increase of natural and agricultural biodiversity and the improvement and increase of the network of protected areas.
The Bill, approved unanimously, became the Law of the Sicilian Region, the first Region in Europe to adopt a regulation in the agroecological field (L.R. 21 of 29 July 2021).
Today, with the entry into force of this law, the agroecological conversion necessary to safeguard local production, farmers’ income and agricultural and natural biodiversity will be implemented. The use of synthetic products such as insecticides, herbicides, etc. will also be reduced. very harmful not only for the ecosystem but also for the health of citizens.
Furthermore, among the objectives of the law is the promotion and development of a research plan for the development of an integrated information system through the use of innovative techniques such as sensors, diagnostics and precision agriculture, applied to agri-food, forestry and livestock systems, in order to encourage virtuous production processes increasingly oriented towards sustainable development understood as reducing production impacts on the environment and climate.
Furthermore, the law provides, among other measures, incentives and rewards, also within the PSR, for companies that introduce native species, varieties and breeds into the company and comply with the provisions of the art. 7 of the aforementioned law.