Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credits: BOUILLAND Stéphane / Hemis.fr / hemis.fr / Hemis via AFP 5:13 p.m., January 31, 2024
The farmers' anger targets several standards in force, in particular that concerning fallow. A provision present in the CAP 2023 requires operators to leave at least 4% of arable (cultivable) land fallow or in agroecological infrastructure. Why is this controversial? Europe 1 takes stock.
This is an issue highlighted by the discontent of farmers. Farmers are calling into question fallowing, and more precisely a provision present in the common agricultural policy (CAP) version 2023, which obliges them to leave at least 4% of arable land (which can be plowed and cultivated) fallow or in infrastructure agroecological (hedges, trees, groves, ditches, ponds) to benefit from European aid. Why does this regulation, which can be lowered to 3% of arable land under conditions, crystallize the anger of farmers?
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Fallow, a resting of the soil, without crops
To fully understand, we must first remember what fallowing consists of. This involves resting the soil of part of the farm, intended to regenerate it to facilitate future harvests. Historically, French farmers opened these lands to grazing for ruminants or produced hay, for example.
With the evolution of technologies, the appearance of weedkillers and the introduction of chemical fertilizers, this technique, widespread in France during the period of the Ancien Régime (16th-18th century), was gradually abandoned because farmers no longer need to leave part of their land without crops to avoid soil exhaustion.
An exemption which has no longer been in force since the end of 2023
However, fallow land made a comeback in the French countryside in 1992, with the CAP adopted that year. Soil resting is used as a tool to combat overproduction: farmers must set aside part of their land in exchange for remuneration. If this rule ends in 2008, fallowing later finds ecological uses (replenishment of water reserves and soil fertility, biodiversity refuges, etc.), and farmers remain forced to leave certain lands fallow in the framework of the CAP.
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Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022, a waiver of this rule was passed in order to be able to produce more to compensate for disruptions in grain supplies from Ukraine and Russia, but it expired at the end of 2023. At least around ten countries, including France, had called for the continuation of at least a partial exemption. In vain.
Despite everything, faced with the anger of many European farmers on this issue, the European Commission on Wednesday proposed a partial derogation in 2024, provided that farmers reach 7% of intermediate or nitrogen-fixing crops, specifies the European executive - a relaxation demanded by a majority of member states including France. A “late” and “limited” proposal, regrets Copa-Cogeca, the organization of the majority agricultural unions in the EU.
The removal of the obligation, a debate between unions
Today, unions are calling for an end to the obligation of this practice because it imposes a reduction in agricultural land. “When we are told this year there will be 4% compulsory fallow, for us, this is not understandable in the context,” said Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA. Other actors, however, are in favor of maintaining these regulations, such as the Confédération paysanne, classified on the left and defending an agroecological model.
For this union, the removal of the obligation to place part of the land fallow is "a meaningless request", particularly because "today, there is no shortage of cereal production".