French PM hopes to end agricultural crisis with new raft of measures

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced on Saturday a new package of 14 measures that he hopes will turn the page on the agricultural crisis, which caused blockades at the start of the year. Major unions welcomed the move but warned they would remain on their guard.

"We are working on concrete measures for our farmers," Gabriel Attal told reporters during a visit to the local seafood market in Pirou, in the northwestern region of La Manche.

"These additional measures which are added to the 67 measures that I announced on 26 January, demonstrate our determination to meet the needs of our farmers and to guarantee a prosperous future for our agriculture", he said.

Among these measures is the promised presentation of the final version of the Ecophyto 2030 pesticide reduction plan at the beginning of May, which had been put on hold due to the agricultural crisis.

There is also a new cash flow aid for farms, the acceleration of 100 water storage or irrigation projects starting this year and an aid plan for three departments hit by weather crises such as severe flooding (Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Hérault).

€50 million has been earmarked for projects to adapt to climate change and develop local sectors, the government said.

Cautious optimism

The measures come after unprecedented protests by farmers earlier this year and intense negotiations lasting several months.

The government hopes to enter a new phase with the concrete implementation of each of these measures, which were welcomed the major agricultural unions, the FNSEA and the Young Farmers union on Saturday.

But they promised to be "extremely vigilant".
"A crisis does not end by snapping your fingers," deputy secretary general of the FNSEA Christophe Chambon told Franceinfo on Saturday.

"Everything that has been announced for months must trickle down to the farms," he said.

President of the Coordination Rurale (Rural Coordination) also said there was still a lot to do.

"We are given the feeling of moving quickly, but a lot of measures could have been taken from the start," she declared.

A meeting with Emmanuel Macron, promised since the Agricultural Show in February, should make it possible to seal the entry into a new phase, but no date has been set.

Attal said he would not let the farmers down.
"This is a question of trust," French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said, when asked about future agricultural protests. "We don't want to get into mutual blackmail with the unions," he said.

Next week, MPs will be called upon to examine the agricultural orientation bill, that was revised following the crisis.

It will look at simplifying the rules around pesticides and using an European indicator instead of the French used until now.

Some NGOs have criticised the European indicator for less clearly differentiating the harmfulness of pesticides.

The government also confirmed that the reform of agricultural pension funds will apply from 2026, based on the best 25 years of a career.

(with AFP)