OUR TERRITORY
The property “Cascina Veneria” is situated in Lignana, a small village near Vercelli, in east Piedmont. The Veneria estate is the largest single body rice estate in Europe. The territory in which it is located, it’s the wide fertile Po valley at the feet of Monte Rosa; the property counts more than 700 hectares of rice fields in a vast area that in ancient times was called “Silva salsa”. Each year only 550 of the 700 hectares are cultivated because it’s adopted the crop rotation to have the best quality of each type of rice: Carnaroli, Vialone nano, Balilla and aromatic Gange.
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Rice cultivation in Piedmont
This territory has a great relevance, in fact the itinerary of 30 km from Vercelli to Crescentino that is known as “Strada delle Grange”, it’s officially the first and only street of rice and it has obtained the recognition of “Strada del riso vercellese di qualità”. Along this way we can find a lot of paddy fields, the characteristic grange, protected areas, traditional farms, rivers, museums, historical buildings, but also typical restaurants.
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Italian rice cultivation in Vercelli and Novara
This landscape thanks to its strange characteristics is also called “Terre d’acqua” or “Mare a quadretti”, moreover it has a particular microclimate, flora and fauna. Regarding the importance of water, the processes of irrigation and management of the territory’s water are very important, fragile and essential for the plantation of rice and therefore the success of the company.
The necessary water, that the rice fields need, comes from the ‘Po’. This river is an important source of energy made by man, who had the engineering capacity to deviate the flow of the biggest river of Italy into a smaller artificial canal named “Cavour canal”, which guarantees an important amount of water for the irrigation of the rice fields.
