In one year, has the situation of farmers improved? No, if we are to believe the FNSEA and the Young Farmers, who are calling for a return to the streets this Monday, November 18, almost a year after the crisis which engulfed the sector. The situation of some farmers remains precarious.
“All this paperwork is hell“: Michel*, a breeder in Finistère, like his colleagues, is calling for more administrative simplification. The FNSEA and the Young Farmers call on their members to resume mobilizationalmost a year after the crisis that hit the sector. A year after the big demonstrations and road blockages, but several years of precariousness for some. More and more administrative tasks, the complexity of standards, the expansion of agricultural operations with the loneliness that can go with it… The suicide rate is higher in this sector than in other professions.
Ask for help
Before reaching this extreme outcome, you should not hesitate to ask for help. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Solidarité Paysans association helps farmers in difficulty. In Finistère, 250 to 300 farmers are supported by the associationbetween 80 and 90 families each year. Near Morlaix, Michel is supported by Solidarité Paysans and accompanied by a volunteer, Jean-Charles Jacopin.
So four years ago, the farmer decided to pick up his phone. “It wasn't going well anymore, I was withdrawing into myself“, remembers Michel who lives alone and raises around sixty cows. It was during a veterinary check that he was advised to contact Solidarités Paysans. “I was tired, I worked all the time, even at night. I happened to sleep on my tractor“. After this call, the breeder receives a visit from a volunteer from the association, now three or four times a year.
“The slightest mistake, you pay for it”
This volunteer is Jean-Charles le Jacobin, a former farmer, who now gives his time for the youngest. And he sees it: the job is more difficult today. “When I was 30 or 40, it still worked. Sometimes, we weren't too picky about technology or techno-economics and it worked. Today, he has to meet all the conditions for it to work. The slightest mistake, you pay for it. There aren't many catch-up solutions.”
Administrative tasks take up a lot of space in Michel's days. “There is more work with the head than beforenotes the almost 60-year-old farmer. All this paperwork is hell. To recover the TIPP tax on diesel for example, we can no longer even do our paperwork ourselves, it's the accountants who do it. Because it takes, I don't know, three or four hours of work to get some money back. And a lot of things are like that today.“
“Everything is linked”
So the association intervenes on three aspects: economic, legal and psychological, and very often all at the same time. “Everything is linkedanalyzes Jean-Charles Jacopin. It is certain that when there is a depression, it has repercussions on operating results. And if the operation is not going well, we get depressed. When you work outside, there are work hours, then there are family, home, leisure hours, etc. In the peasant world, all of this is very, very linked.“
And in the countryside, the observation is objective: there are fewer farmers, larger farms, and more solitude. The number of operating farmers in Finistère increased from 9,903 in 2010 to 7,282 in 2021 according to INSEE, and this is a sustainable trend given the age of farm managers. According to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, “operators are aged on average 51.4 years in 2020 compared to 50.2 years in 2010. Even if the share of those under 40 remains around 20%, that of those aged 60 or over increases (25% in 2020 compared to 20% in 2010)“.
Greater loneliness
“A few years ago, there were six or seven of us in the neighborhood helping each otherremembers Michel. Today I'm all alone.” A loneliness which increases in the profession over the years, analyzes Jean-Charles Jacopin. “Before, as the neighbors were not far away, there was the technical meeting 'over the embankment' as they called it. So we exchanged: 'what did you deal with? What did you sow, what variety did you take, etc?' Today, there is no longer that because people are all alone.”
And you shouldn't stay alone. The Solidarité-Paysans volunteer repeats it, we must ask for help before it is too late. According to the MSA, the Mutualité sociale agricole, farmers “aged 15 to 64 have a 43% increased risk of suicide compared to those insured under all Social Security schemes“. According to its 2022 report, 529 farmers ended their lives in 2016, or around 1.5 suicides per day in the sector.
In Finistère, the association can be reached at 06.17.32.37.15. Around twenty volunteers support farmers who request it.
*We will call this breeder Michel, he wished to remain anonymous.
