Invited on Europe 1, Friday, the president of the FNSEA Christiane Lambert campaigned for a different approach to soil irrigation in the face of the drought endured by many departments.

INTERVIEW

Despite lower temperatures than in July and heavy rainfall in places, drought continues to be a problem for many departments: 80 are in a situation of water restriction and 23 are totally prohibited from irrigating. "Many sectors are suffering, including livestock," lamented Friday 1 Christiane Lambert, president of the FNSEA.

In this situation, farmers must find ways to irrigate their land. "The question of irrigation must be understood differently today," says the leader of the first agricultural union. "Primary anti-irrigation is starting to change its mind when it sees droughts, even streams are dry, fish are dying."

Lambert wants "water reserves"

For Christiane Lambert, "we must already think about next year and consider what we can do": "If we make water reserves, we can also guarantee a minimum flow of low water in some streams and thus preserve the biodiversity."

" We asked the Ministry of Agriculture to cut fallow hectares "

Grasslands are also dry and animals often do not have much to eat. Farmers must therefore buy fodder, but this represents "a difficulty for cash and therefore for income," she regrets. "We have asked the Ministry of Agriculture to cut the fallow hectares, which are not usually used, and they can be cut in 60 departments today."