The French government announced on Saturday a package of measures that it hopes will be able to turn the page on the agricultural crisis, which caused exceptional blockages at the start of the year. His proposals met with a positive response from the majority unions.
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“We are working on concrete measures for our farmers,” underlined Prime Minister Gabriel Attal while visiting Normandy. Among these measures are the promised presentation “at the beginning of May” of the final version of the Ecophyto pesticide reduction plan, put on hold due to the agricultural crisis, as well as new cash flow aid for farms.
The government also wants to accelerate 100 water storage or irrigation projects this year and promises an aid plan for three departments hit by weather crises (Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Hérault).
“Vigilance”
After the mobilization of farmers and several months of intense negotiations, a new “phase” is opening for the “concrete implementation” of each of these measures, welcomed the majority agricultural unions, the FNSEA and the Young Farmers on Saturday.
But they promise to be “extremely vigilant” to monitor their implementation and the vote this summer of a new agricultural law. “A crisis doesn’t end with a snap of your fingers. Everything that has been announced for months must trickle down to the farms,” warned the deputy secretary general of the FNSEA Christophe Chambon.
The Rural Coordination will also be “vigilant on all announcements” and “there is still a lot to do”, declared its president Véronique Le Floc’h. “We are given the feeling of moving quickly, but a lot of measures could have been taken from the start.”
A meeting with Emmanuel Macron, promised since the Agricultural Show in February, should make it possible to seal the entry into a new phase, but no date has been set.
Avoid “mutual blackmail”
“We are walking on trust,” commented the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau, when asked about the probability of a relaunch of agricultural mobilization. “We don’t want to get into mutual blackmail” with the unions, he said.
The deputies must also examine next week the agricultural orientation bill, revised after the crisis. This text aims to accelerate the arrival of new generations of farmers, relieved of certain environmental constraints.
Government and farmers have also “converged on a new strategy” of the Ecophyto 2030 plan, which will take up the government’s commitments: to simplify it and now be based on a European indicator, instead of the French used until then. This change is denounced by several NGOs who criticize the European indicator for less clearly differentiating the harmfulness of pesticides.
New financing
For farmers’ cash flow, the public investment bank BPIfrance will provide new financing of at least 100 million euros in the form of personal cash loans (up to 75,000 euros) or guarantees for bank loans private.
In the longer term, the government plans to launch a “support” plan for farmers in the Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude and Hérault, particularly affected by drought, frost or floods. This plan will be allocated 50 million euros for projects to adapt to climate change and develop local sectors.
The government also confirms that the reform of agricultural pensions, the technical implementation of which was debated, will apply “from 2026” to the best 25 years of career.
The government has also committed to accelerating 50 agricultural water storage or irrigation projects by June, and 50 others by the end of 2024. Types of projects highly contested by environmental associations.
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