Margaux Fodéré / Photo credits: MAGALI COHEN / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 6:19 a.m., February 19, 2024
Adaptation of farms to global warming, social and fiscal support for breeders, funds for wine growers... The measures promised by the government to respond to the anger of farmers are numerous and the expectations of those concerned remain high.
The 60th edition of the Salon de l'Agriculture will open this Saturday in a flammable context. The farmers are waiting firmly for the government: they are demanding concrete progress after the executive's announcements three weeks ago. Certain measures have already been applied: Gabriel Attal announced that he was removing the increase in the tax on agricultural non-road diesel (GNR), which was to increase gradually until 2030. He also announced an effort to speed up aid emergencies, particularly with regard to epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) for which State reimbursement of veterinary care has increased from 80 to 90%.
Other measures still need to be implemented on farms, such as simplification. Promised by the government, administrative simplification should make daily life easier for farmers.
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“All these somewhat structural measures which are not moving forward”
Although prefects and agricultural unions have been discussing it for two weeks, no concrete measures have been announced, estimates Hervé Lapie, secretary general of the FNSEA. "We were promised to carry out maintenance and cleaning of ditches and watercourses. They simplified and reduced the administrative time but we did not change the substance of the file! It's like the subjects of climate change on water storage, we need to simplify the procedures. There are all these somewhat structural measures which are not moving forward, which are not moving fast enough,” he says.
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Still unknown methods for benefiting from financial aid
To try to put an end to the agricultural crisis, the government has decided to take out the checkbook. Firstly, there is the 150 million euros in support for the cattle breeding sector, a measure which will not be deployed before the summer, but also the 80 million in aid for wine growers affected in particular by the mildew, in Bordeaux. It is also necessary to count 150 million euros over two years for a plan to uproot vines. But the terms are not yet known.
“We put pressure on the government again because unfortunately, we have no real concrete progress on the farms. For example, on wine-growing measures, there is a fund of 150 million euros which has been placed on deferred grubbing up and restructuring [...] at the moment, we still do not know how it will be applied, what eligibility criteria [will be attributed] to this fund for example", asks Rémi Dumas, vice-president of Young Farmers.
If nothing progresses between now and the opening of the Agricultural Show on Saturday February 24, the FNSEA and the Young Farmers will not hesitate to restart the blockages.