Latina, Companies and Farmers

I visited the Province of latina, Italy as a member of the delegation of the Caohu City Government of Anhui Province for the signing of an agreement on the establishment of friendship-city/province relations between Caohu and Latina. It was the first friendship ties Caohu had twinned with an administrative area of a foreign country.

The Province of Latina, facing the Mediterranean Sea, is 70 kilometres to the southwest of Rome. It has a coastline of 180 kilometres and belongs to the Region of Lazio with 33 cities under its jurisdiction and a population of 520,000. Being an ancient as well as young province, it has unique landscape, rich culture and places of historical interest described in the epics and myths. Cities in the southern part of the Province such as Formia used to be the summer resorts of important military and political figures of the Roman Empire, where many castles and villas still remain. These cities are still tourist resorts now.

Many places along the coast of the Province were marshland of the Pontini region. With the influx of people from the north around the end of the 19th century, these places were reclaimed and developed gradually. In the 1920s and 1930s, Benito Mussolini called on the people to “conquer the land” and “fight for food”, bringing the reclamation to its height. The City of Latina, capital of the Province, was thus born. To reproduce the scenes of land reclamation of those years, the City set aside a piece of marshland of about 40 square kilometres, on which a forest park and a museum named Bonifica Pontinia have been built. In the museum scenes of people reclaiming land were reconstructed with old tree stumps, old photos, old steam-engine tractors, old farm tools and machines and by using sound, light and electrical devices and other modern methods to show the hardships the reclaimers endured and their achievements.

The youthfulness of Latina City can be seen from its appearance. The streets and buildings look new and spread out in the shape of a fan with the Piazza of Popolo and the Piazza of Liberty at the centre. Palm trees and Mediterranean pine trees are planted on both sides of the streets. The City also has a war museum built to commemorate the Allied Forces landing here during the Second World War. Landing ships they used are placed outside the museum. Mr. Aimone Finestra, mayor of Latina who is over 80, is a hero who fought in the war as a guerilla.

The favourable geographic position and the warm and humid Mediterranean climate give Latina exceptional advantages. When cold wind sweeps through other European cities, here far from the noisy shore of the Tyrrhnian Sea, tourists and anglers in light clothing are enjoying the peace and quiet under the warm sunshine. Not far from the shore, the sandy land and marshes have been turned into good farmland with standard green houses dotted everywhere.

The Province has a rational economic structure. Some world-famous chemical and pharmaceutical enterprises have set up joint ventures here. It has rich agricultural and tourist resources, and its dairy products, vegetables and flowers are sold all over Europe. During our stay in Latina, we visited aquatic products and vegetable enterprises and a few family farms.

In Gaeta, a city in the central part of the Province, Mr. Paride Martella, president of the Province, accompanied us to visit the sea fish breeding company Medifish and sailed out to sea to learn about aquatic cultivation on the sea. The company breeds a special kind of sea fish. It has 52 net trunks for fish breeding, of which two big ones can breed 250,000 tails of fish each. The breeding cycle is 18 months. The company has a staff of 40 and its annual production value exceeds 10 million euro. We visited a European Vegetable Concern in Terracina. It has six companies under it, linking 250 farmers who grow more than 200 kinds of vegetables such as carrots, small pumpkins and cauliflowers. The concern grows vegetables in large modern green houses. Compared with the green houses in China these are much more advanced. Water and fertilizers are channeled in through pipes controlled by computers. According to the technicians there, no pesticides are used in these green houses, therefore, the vegetables, melons and fruits can be eaten after a rinse. The seeds and fertilizers are provided by the companies and products are sorted, washed and packed by the distribution centres of the companies and then sold on the internet. The government grants subsidies for the purchase of the equipment needed and the production cost. The industrialization of farming has been realized and the farmers, free from worries of natural calamities, cost and sales, can concentrate on field management. We also visited several boarding houses of the farmers.

Latina City is well known for its milk buffaloes. We visited four family farms in the city. Each farm has two to three hundred head of buffaloes. The Olympia Diary Company, one of the largest milk buffalo farms in Italy, has 320 head. These buffaloes are valued at 2,000 euro per head, and each brings in a profit of over 1,000 euro annually. The buffalo feed is scientifically blended and the time for reproduction is controlled. The local animal husbandry associations provide farmers with various professional services; therefore, it is not necessary for farmers to become experts in every field themselves.

The farm that left the deepest impression on us was the farm of Mr. Chellini. As we got off the van we heard the exceptionally loud greetings from our host: “We oppose war, but embrace you---guests who have come from afar to seek peace and development.” Mr. Chellini, over 60, was a short and sturdy man with a face glowing with health. He was very warm and humorous. When I handed over my name card to him, he extended his bare hands and said something. The interpreter told me that he said he was a farmer and had no cards, but he would stamp a seal for us. We then visited his farm. The breeding ground covered an area of 2 hectares, in which he raised more than 200 head of buffaloes for milk and meat and bred calves. He had another 10 hectares of land for growing forage and turnips.

After the visit when we got on the van and ready to leave, we saw Mr. Chellini waving his hand and calling for us. He ran up to the van breathless and smiled at me, his seal in one hand. I had already forgotten all about it, but he remembered. So in my notebook I got Mr. Chellini’s “card” with the name, account number and address of the farm.