The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Senate addresses issue of farmer suicide

2020-12-11T07:01:48.984Z


The elected officials of the upper house have just opened an online platform to collect testimonies from farmers in distress or their relatives.


The painfully current topic of farmer suicide is also of interest to senators.

A working group led by Françoise Férat (Centrist Union) and Henri Cabanel (PS), has just opened an online platform to collect the testimonies of farmers in distress but also those of relatives of peasants who have put an end to to their day.

According to the most recent statistics made public by the agricultural social security, the MSA, in 2015 there were 372 suicides of farmers, or more than one per day.

Testimonials can be submitted until January 15, 2021 on the dedicated site.

"

We call on the relatives of the victims to use this tool, whether they are family, friends, neighbors, colleagues

, comments the co-rapporteur Henri Cabanel, senator from Hérault, himself a winegrower confronted with to this question

.

The word is entirely free, and each contribution will be useful (…) to be able to provide human, useful and effective support to those who need it

”.

Written testimonies which will of course be anonymous.

“We are aware that testifying on this subject represents a painful effort for the relatives of the victims.

But these testimonies will be particularly valuable for us to develop concrete proposals to fight against the feeling of distress of certain farmers

,

adds Françoise Férat for her part.

A field survey in January

Indeed, the objective of this working group, formed a year ago in the Senate,

"aims to identify avenues to improve support for farmers in distress

," says Sophie Primas (LR) , president of the Senate Economic Affairs Committee, to whom this mission was entrusted.

We want to get out of the very administrative approach to this tragic question to give it a much more human aspect ”

.

It is for this reason that upstream of this online collection of testimonies, the senators have already interviewed at the Palais du Luxembourg experts on the subject.

Without forgetting the investigation on the ground, completes Sophie Primas.

Some did not wait for this date to make the first contacts.

This Thursday, for example, Senator Henri Cabanel went to Marmande to meet Patrick Maurin.

This ex-municipal councilor of a sub-prefecture of Lot-et-Garonne was made famous for his marches across France.

He had organized them to denounce the suicides of farmers in the greatest indifference of the country.

A wooded hedge in a field of Loire-Atlantique Eric de La Chesnais

The objective of these senatorial initiatives is to submit a report at the end of February at the beginning of March to the Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie, who must make announcements on the subject at the end of March with an "

operational action plan

", in conjunction with the ministers. of Health and Labor.

To fuel his reflections, he already received last week the report of the deputy of the majority of Lot-et-Garonne, Olivier Damaisin, on the suicide of farmers.

In particular, he recommended better local coordination of support for farmers in distress with the establishment of a departmental referent.

The association Solidarité Paysans, which assists farmers in distress, judged this report "

not up to the stakes

" because it does

not

question "

neither the agricultural model, nor the conditions for exercising the profession

".

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-12-11

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.