My name is Tommaso, I’m a 28-year-old man, and two years ago I set up a small farm, Azienda Agricola Le Querce, producing high-quality extra virgin olive oil from around 1,500 olive trees.

Due to ongoing climate change, central and southern Italy have been hit by an unprecedented drought this year.

To call the situation drastic is an understatement: overall, from January 2024 to the present day in Abruzzo, where my farm is based, there has been a rainfall deficit of -87.7%, and the situation in Puglia, the home of olives, is identical (not to mention Sicily).

Italy is literally split in two, with the north battered by constant storms and, in the rest of the country, not only not a single drop of rain, but also scorching temperatures for three whole summer months, which have dried out the soil to a depth of 1.5 metres.

The roots of the centuries-old olive trees barely reach these depths, but even they cannot withstand such a prolonged period without water. Unable to hold on to their fruit, the olive trees sacrifice them, drawing back the water inside to try and hold out again and again, until the next rain, which, as usual, is slow to arrive.

With the remaining olives, which are very dry, on the one hand the quality improves, with a higher concentration of polyphenols, but for the producer this is a major problem because little oil is produced, as the flesh has not swelled properly.

With a drop in production that currently stands at around 40–50 per cent—and could reach as high as 60 per cent if the rain continues to hold off—the situation is unsustainable. And for the next harvest (2025/2026), further price rises are already expected: the olive tree bears fruit on the branch that grew the previous spring, but if there is little rain, this branch either fails to grow at all, or grows but remains short, significantly reducing the following year’s harvest.

With these extreme heatwaves every year:

- producers work harder to remedy the water stress in some way, even if only to a small extent;

- Consumers pay more each year because there is a shortage of produce;

- the farmer ultimately always earns slightly less than the previous year.

To address all this, I plan to dig a well that will provide sufficient water in the years to come, in the hope of finding groundwater accumulated tens or hundreds of years ago. To dig this well and install an irrigation system to bring water to the olive trees, I have been quoted a figure of around €30,000. I would be truly honoured if, with your help, you could make it possible for me to continue my work, because otherwise, without water, it would be unsustainable to carry on and I would have to change jobs. That is why I would like to ask for help to cover two-thirds of the project.

In this way, I hope to ensure, in the coming years, the survival of the olive trees on the one hand, and extra virgin olive oil that does not rise in price on the other.

A final note: in my own small way, following the annual life cycle of the olives (but not only that) and being in direct contact with the soil every day, I feel confident in saying that every year it becomes harder to battle against a climate gone haywire. Many have advised me to change jobs because battling today’s weather conditions is like playing the lottery every year, and you’re bound to lose. Unfortunately, climate change is real, and it’s plain to see. And it’s getting worse at an alarming rate. But I’m not giving up; I always think, ‘I’ll make up for it next year!’