We need this plan, but supplemented by at least one billion additional [euros], reacted Friday September 4 on franceinfo Hervé Lapie, vice-president of the FNSEA, the main agricultural union, after the announcement by the Minister of Agriculture, Annie Gennevard, of a plan of more than a billion euros to support the agricultural sector faced with drought and heatwaves.
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“The country has a double imperative before it: to compensate losses, to avoid bankruptcies and to revive agricultural production, so as not to lose sovereignty,” underlined Annie Genevard. To revive agricultural production, the minister unveiled the creation of a "rearmament fund", endowed with 235 million euros for France and the Antilles and which will be "in the hands of the prefects". “Each territory is different, so each response may be different,” she explains. This fund will include an envelope dedicated to the various fires which struck farms this summer.
“The billion is a first announcement, we will not be satisfied with it”, reacts the FNSEA
The estimated losses for the agricultural world are around ten billion euros, according to Hervé Lapie, vice-president of the FNSEA, who considers the envelope announced by the government insufficient in view of the scale of the difficulties encountered by farms. “We did not ask to compensate for the losses. But on the other hand, we asked for a support plan to invest in 2027, to re-cultivate and relaunch production in 2027, explained Hervé Lapie. The billion is a first announcement, we will not be satisfied with it. We need this plan, but supplemented with at least an additional billion, I think that is what we are missing,” insisted the vice-president of the FNSEA.
“It’s the network that will decide. We have an equally important meeting with the Prime Minister next week to review the copy."
The vice-president of the FNSEA
on franceinfo
The head of the FNSEA regrets the absence of measures concerning insurers and bankers "to reorganize the annuities of our agricultural operations, to avoid an accident and over-indebtedness in 2027". Another demand from the union: the immediate reopening of commercial negotiations. These negotiations are scheduled to begin on December 1 and continue until March. “When we have lost between 20 and 50% on our productions, we cannot wait until March. (…) We must reopen commercial negotiations and we must balance the margins,” asserted Hervé Lapie. The FNSEA is not currently calling for the mobilization of farmers. “We are going to analyze what is announced, we are going to take stock again with the entire network,” said the vice-president of the union.
The Peasant Confederation will mobilize “in the coming days” and denounces a “real scandal”
Thomas Gibert, spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne, assures Friday on franceinfo that the union will mobilize "in the coming days", to "not let the farms go out of business", after the announcement by the Minister of Agriculture Annie Genevard of a plan worth more than a billion euros. The spokesperson for the Peasant Confederation denounces "a real scandal" and a "first lie" on the part of the government which, according to him, only offers "crumbs".
“It is not a fund of 1.2 billion which is proposed, since half (of the envelope) corresponds to the normal functioning of the national solidarity compensation system.”
The spokesperson for the Peasant Confederation
on franceinfo
The spokesperson for the Peasant Confederation believes that a "real purge of the most fragile farms" is underway, "at the cost of the older ones who are rubbing their hands." According to Thomas Gibert, a “universal compensation fund, which truly compensates the losses of our farms”, is necessary. “The entire climate sector must bear this climate risk and must put its hand in its pocket,” he believes.
“We are far from the mark”, estimates the Rural Coordination
François Walraet, secretary general of Rural Coordination (CR) judged Friday on franceinfo that "we are far from the mark", after the government's announcements and the one billion euro plan announced by the Minister of Agriculture. "A billion euros is a lot", in the current budgetary context, but "when we put together all the losses (...) between the drought, the heatwave, just for corn production, we are at two billion euros", explained François Walraet. “You add wheat, sunflower, sorghum, fodder, vines, beets” and “it makes you dizzy,” he added.
For the approximately 40,000 farms "really in serious difficulty" mentioned by the minister, "that's 25,000 euros per farm" if the billion was allocated to them. “I don’t think it’s enough to save them,” said the representative of the CR. “It won’t save all the farmers, it won’t save agriculture,” he summarized, calling instead to allow farmers to “live from their work” rather than having to “beg for aid to be able to survive.” The Rural Coordination must be received by the Prime Minister in September in order to discuss measures allowing "agriculture to restart", specified its secretary general.
The funding announced by the Minister of Agriculture will notably go through national solidarity compensation (ISN), the main State mechanism to compensate for harvest losses linked to exceptional climatic hazards, a measure which intervenes beyond a certain threshold of losses. The government estimates the amount needed at 520 million euros, and promises to accelerate "advances and payments", said the minister.
