Coronavirus: 40,000 volunteers ready to help farmers

More than 40,000 people have already answered the authorities' call to help farmers. Threatened with a labor shortage due to the coronavirus pandemic, French operators have expressed their concerns to the government in recent days.

Asked about Franceinfo as to the number of people who have already answered the call launched by the authorities to find 200,000 seasonal workers, the Minister of Agriculture replied: "40,000, which is enormous."

This morning in video conference with my friend @LuisPlanas, Spanish Minister of Agriculture, to discuss the essential solidarity between our two countries facing the same crisis of # COVID19 @mapagob @Agri_Gouv @francediplo #Alimentation #agriculture pic.twitter.com / QvIwC4UVFg

A platform for volunteers

Didier Guillaume also announced the launch of a platform, on the websites of the ministries of Agriculture and the Economy and on the Pôle emploi website, intended for volunteers, in particular people on partial unemployment, due to the confinement of the population in France, eager to come and work with farmers near their homes.

He assured that these volunteers would be paid and could even combine this remuneration with their partial unemployment compensation. "These people who will go to agriculture will have work contracts and they will be able to combine the devices," said Didier Guillaume.

The French agricultural sector estimates that it needs around 200,000 seasonal workers to replace foreigners who usually come to participate in the harvest, but are blocked due to the containment decided to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

With Reuters

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