Deposit payments will already be initiated in early November for farmers affected by the summer drought, while the recognition campaign is not yet completed.
Le Monde With AFP
The farmers of eleven departments will benefit from rapid compensation for agricultural calamities for the damage caused by summer drought, in particular in breeding, announced, Tuesday, October 18, the National Committee for the Management of Risks in agriculture (CNGRA).
Even if the recognition campaign does not end until “at the end of October”, the committee has identified areas for which the losses noted make them already eligible for agricultural calamities, said the Ministry of the agriculture in a press release.
These areas in and around the Massif Central, cover eleven departments: Ardèche, Aveyron, Cantal, Drôme, Loire, Haute-Loire, Lot, Lozère, Puy-de-Dôme , the Rhône and the Tarn.
They can “be the subject of initial recognition on the basis of a provisional loss rate”. Deposit payments will be “initiated in early November for these prioritized areas, as the files investigate,” said the ministry. “This important acceleration of the calendar for the fodder areas most affected by the drought will allow a first crucial cash supply for the benefit of the most affected breeders.”
The ministry thus hopes to “avoid uncontrolled decapitalization”, that is to say to avoid breeders to sell their livestock in mass that they can no longer feed, for lack of grass collected during the ‘Summer or lack of capital to buy them food. 2> twenty-seven departments in agricultural calamities after April freeze
The committee met on Tuesday to rule on requests for recognition in agricultural calamities of the various climatic hazards occurring at the start of the year. “Taking into account the first recognitions carried out on July 6, the CNGRA also confirmed that it recognized as agricultural calamities the damage linked to the frost of April 2022 on a total of twenty-seven departments”.
The farmers of these departments will receive forecast compensation which will amount to a total of 76.3 million euros, said the ministry, “mainly in arboriculture”. The Garonne valley, the Dordogne, certain regions of the East, the north of the Aquitaine region had been particularly affected.
“Regarding the hailstorms in May and June, eleven departments were recognized as agricultural calamities, for fundraising (production means), for an amount of 1.8 million euros in forecast compensation” , added the ministry.
A new CNGRA meeting is scheduled for December, to “determine the final rates for the most affected departments” by drought.