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Water withdrawals: farmers exempt from "extra effort", says Marc Fesneau

2023-03-30T17:08:20.213Z


Agriculture will not have to lower its levies to irrigate crops, said the Minister of Agriculture before the majority union FNSEA.


Agriculture, which consumes a lot of water, will not have to lower its withdrawals to irrigate crops, said the Minister of Agriculture on Thursday before the majority union FNSEA in Angers, when Emmanuel Macron presented a "plan of sobriety" on the water in the Alps.

I am happy with the arbitration we have, which is an arbitration to say stabilization of the levies, so we are not asking for an additional effort

” from the farmers, declared Marc Fesneau on the last day of the congress of the majority agricultural federation.

With climate change, “

no doubt we will need more areas to irrigate

”.

This implies, at constant withdrawals, consuming less water per hectare, he briefly sketched, mentioning a form of "

sobriety per hectare

".

At the same time, the Head of State announced that "

a sobriety plan on the water

" would be requested "

from each sector

" from "

here in the summer

", during the presentation in the Hautes-Alpes of his water management strategy.

According to the Minister, agriculture is however freed from an objective of lowering levies.

"

We must do more irrigation with the same amount of water that we use today

," explained the president.

Agriculture is the leading water-consuming activity in France with 58% of the total, ahead of drinking water (26%).

Read alsoIn Sainte-Soline, clashes over a basin

"About 20% of farms are equipped with an irrigation system"

According to a recent Senate report, “

about 20% of farms are equipped with an irrigation system (i.e. about 75,000 irrigators)

” and “

60% of irrigated areas concern corn production

”.

We will not take less, no more.

There will be a stabilization for agriculture

”, noted with satisfaction Christiane Lambert, outgoing president of the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA).

A few days after the violent demonstration against the mega-basin of Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), the president validated the usefulness of these deductions, while saying Thursday that he wanted to better "distribute the uses" and condition their use on

practices

of saving water and pesticides.

Talking about sobriety does not scare us.

We are already committed.

From 2000 to 2023, we have already reduced the use of phytosanitary products by 54%

,” said Christiane Lambert.

"

All that we are already doing

", "

finally, nothing changes for us

", could we hear in the aisles of the congress after the presidential announcements, relayed by Marc Fesneau.

Referring to the anti-basin mobilization of Sainte-Soline, the minister again criticized elected officials and unions who "

associate themselves with these movements which have no other goal than violence and destruction

" and "

dishonor their responsibility

".

Yes, the [anti-basins] movement Les Uprisings of the earth must be dissolved

,” pleaded the boss of the FNSEA.

She called to "

stop being complacent with parties and unions that destroy the tools of production of their fellow farmers

“Quoting the Confédération paysanne, the third French agricultural union, ranked on the left.

Outside the Palais des Congrès, activists from the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion briefly unfurled a banner proclaiming “

FNSEA = Agriculture in agony.

Our future is agroecology

”.

Among them, “

Günther

”, a young market gardener, deplored “

the defense of a

deadly productivism”: “

We must all reduce our footprint.

I mulch my soil, I plant trees to limit evaporation [of plant water].

Here, we want nothing to change.

»

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-03-30

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