In Amiens, about sixty tractors and several hundred farmers also gathered in front of the prefecture, where they deposited bales of straw, noted an AFP correspondent.
Some demonstrators also threw projectiles at the police.
In Lille, where 500 tractors had converged according to the FDSEA, at the origin of the rally, more than 300 according to the police, the machines occupied one of the main avenues of the city center.
The demonstrators carried placards reading "France, do you still want your peasants?"
or "Let us work in peace, at the right price".
Demonstration by farmers in Lille on February 22, 2022 to demand, in particular, fairer remuneration Denis Charlet AFP
“We have our boots full,” says Matthieu Leroy, a young breeder from Comines (North).
"Electricity has quadrupled, the price of fertilizer has tripled, animal feed has increased a lot too," he told AFP.
Result: “We can't afford a minimum wage for 70 hours a week. Fortunately, my wife works”.
Tense negotiations are currently underway between manufacturers, retailers and farmers, and should be completed at the end of the month.
Farmers are demanding in particular the application of the Egalim laws passed in 2018 and 2021, aimed at protecting farmers' remuneration, by better distributing agricultural income between producers, processors and distributors.
The demonstrators also intended to protest against the rules on the spreading of pesticides, denouncing a hardening in the matter.
Boots deposited by farmers during a demonstration in Lille on February 22, 2022 to say that they have "full of boots" Denis Charlet AFP
“These are areas on which we pay taxes, rents and other charges, without being able to derive an income from them”, underlines Lucile Delbar, deputy general secretary of the FDSEA of Pas-de-Calais.
The demonstrators are also worried about the obligation to leave 4 to 7% of land fallow from 2023, as part of the reform of the CAP.
© 2022 AFP