After the FDSEA-JA tandem and the Rural Coordination, the fourth agricultural union of Indre, the Confédération paysanne, also made its voice heard in the agricultural protest movement this fall, Tuesday December 3, 2024, in Châteauroux. Around fifty of its members, spokespersons and supporters gathered at midday, Place de la République, between two tractors, bales of straw and a stand set up under an arbor.
“Faced with an exceptional situation, exceptional measures are needed”
They offered free tastings of several local products, with a slogan: “To continue to feed citizens, we must be helped quickly so that our farms do not disappear! “, said Sylvain Gourbault, one of the union's co-spokespersons, to the prefect of Indre, Thibault Lanxade, and to the director of the Territorial Directorate (DDT), Rik Vandererven, invited to come and meet them. Because between excessive rains, catastrophic harvests and sowing, farmers deplore a “rotten year” who has “marked all farms”.
“To deal with these climatic hazards, the State abandoned the agricultural disaster regime for an insurance system which shows all its failures in the year when it is needed, which is recognized by the Chamber of Agriculture, specifies Robin Doubli, another co-spokesperson for the union. To help us, the Minister of Agriculture offered us the establishment of loans at subsidized rates to refinance our farms… But it is not new loans that we need when the existing debts are already too heavy! This is not enough: faced with an exceptional situation, exceptional measures are required. »
Direct aid and rapid compensation
The Conf' is therefore asking for direct and conditional aid of €200 per hectare of crops (sown or not) capped at 100 ha per farm; €4,000 per market gardener, beekeeper or arborist; a treatment ” fast “ for the most vulnerable, particularly young people who have settled; a treatment “very fast” files for requests for national solidarity compensation (ISN, former agricultural calamities); compensation for breeders affected by FCO 3 and 8 and MHE; the mobilization of the European emergency envelope.
The prefecture recalls its twenty commitments
In a press release signed by Thibault Lanxade, prefect of Indre, the latter recalls the commitments made since the farmers' demonstrations at the start of 2024, some of which have already been put in place.
> More than 98% of Pac files were able to benefit from payment of the aid advance: payment of €75 million. Payments are continuing for the last files and balance payment operations have already been initiated by DDT.
> Special monitoring was put in place, called Task Force 36, which made it possible to closely monitor around a hundred operators identified as being in serious difficulty.
> A strong signal was sent to elected officials and those involved in private collective catering to urge them to accelerate the application of the Egalim laws. Site visits with state services are scheduled.
> Force majeure situations have been recognized in order to adapt the measures as quickly as possible to the context of the land (maintenance of hedges, fodder recovery of fallow land, nitrate plan, exemption from the plowing ban, etc.).
> Files related to water (irrigation and reserve): a one-stop shop has been set up with a commitment to respond within a short time frame.
> Procedures for requesting recognition under the National Solidarity Indemnity have been initiated by the DDT: eleven files are in progress and the procedures for declaring losses will begin.
> The minister announced the establishment of two cyclical and structural loans: for the latter, the State will provide its guarantee of 70% up to a limit of €200,000.
> A partial exemption from the property tax on undeveloped properties (TFPNB) of 50% was decided by the DDFIP.
> The envelope for covering social contributions increased from €74,000 to €194,000.