France unveils €1.1bn emergency aid for farmers after record heat
Unveiling the CASI aid package on Friday, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard said the money was needed both to compensate farmers for their losses and protect future production.
“The country faces a double imperative: compensate for losses to avoid bankruptcies and restart agricultural production,” Genevard said. “If we structurally lose productive capacity, we will lose landscapes, market share, sovereignty and quality products.”
Some crop producers have reported losses of up to 80 percent, while livestock farmers have also been badly affected by shortages of animal feed.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu had described agriculture as his “number one priority” as the government returned to work after the summer.
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Emergency payments
The support comes as the government works on next year's budget and seeks to keep the deficit under control ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
“One billion euros represents a massive effort given the current budgetary context,” Genevard said.
About half of the package, some €520 million, will be used to provide rapid payments following weather damage.
A further €30 million will be available through the agricultural disaster scheme to cover losses that cannot be insured, including permanent crops and vineyards.
The plan also creates a local recovery fund to help farms buy seeds, plants and animal feed after drought left farmland parched.
Further measures include €330 million in land-tax relief, help with social-security payments and a fuel subsidy.
The funding will be available from next week, Genevard said, with regional authorities responsible for finalising how the money will be distributed.
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Pressure from farmers
Farmers' unions have warned that some producers are in a desperate situation after France experienced its hottest summer on record in 2026.
“We have just lived through the hottest summer ever recorded since measurements began in 1900,” Environment Minister Monique Barbut said on Thursday at the presentation of the summer climate report, which covers June to August.
Barbut said in mid-August that the direct and indirect impacts of the heatwaves would cost France between €10 billion and €15 billion.
France's largest farmers' union, the FNSEA, said agricultural production losses this summer would exceed €10 billion, with more than €5 billion already estimated in both the livestock and crop sectors.
The Confédération paysanne farming union, which supports smaller producers rather than intensive farming, had called for direct payments of €5,000 per farmer, costing €2 billion in total, to prevent farms from closing.
Young farmers have called for a general tax contribution modelled on a “drought tax” introduced in 1976 to finance longer-term investment needed to keep farms operating.
France, the largest agricultural producer in the EU, is bracing for another heatwave this week.