Cascina Oschiena - Crova (VC) - Piedmont

Cascina Oschiena is one of the oldest farmsteads in the province of Vercelli, rice has been cultivated here since the XVI century. In 2008 Alice Cerutti, 37year old farmer, took on the commitment of running Cascina Oschiena. Well aware of the centuries-old history of Cascina Oschiena, Alice has carried out deep renovation works while maintaining the ancient buildings with great care and attention: the drying kiln and the silos necessary for modern rice cultivation have been integrated into the traditional architecture while the stables, which once housed carthorses, have become storage for tractors. Alice has chosen a sustainable agriculture approach, creating a system that guarantees the highest quality standards in production and the protection of the Environment, adopting integrated production farming techniques like sowing winter cover crops to increase naturally the fertility and quality of the soil and sowing the entire rice production exclusively in water to enhance biodiversity. In the last years over 5000 trees have been planted and in 2019 Cascina Oschiena Natural Wetlands were created by converting 25 hectares, one fourth of the farmland, from rice cultivation into a Nature Reserve. The aim of this amazing project is the survival and reproduction of amphibians, bees, dragonflies, and butterflies, and the nesting of different species of migratory birds, especially the Blacktailed Godwit, since Cascina Oschiena is the last recorded nesting site in Italy. "Preserving the Environment today is not enough, it is necessary to give back to Nature for a better Future": this is Cascina Oschiena's philosophy