The French government declares an agricultural disaster due to the cold wave

French Agriculture Minister Julian Denormondi announced this Friday after a visit to the Durain region (southwest of Paris) that the government had declared a regime of agricultural catastrophe due to low temperatures this week and causing losses on a number of topics.

In an interview with a television station, he said farmers face exceptional and difficult conditions, affecting crops several weeks after freezing temperatures.

He lamented the impact of climate change on sectors such as weedculture, arboriculture and herbaceous crops, including beet and rapeseed.

He explained that measuring the damage was too quick as thousands of hectares had been affected and the cold wave had not ended. He said it would take weeks to assess the real impacts.

He also mentioned that the announcement of the disaster regime allows to provide compensation, however he did not specify the amount they have. He also recalled that not all of them were farmers.

He added that he would work with the Minister of Public Accounts, Minister of Public Accounts Oliver Dusop, to work out ways to alleviate losses, such as tax arrangements.

In several interventions over the past few days, the Agriculture Minister has said that it should be seen if the banks agree with these alternatives.

For his part, Christian Lambert, president of the National Farmers’ Association (FNSEA), visited the families of the victims and stressed that government assistance to deal with the losses was crucial.

Lambert called for the use of deductions from social fees and taxes and the deferment of certain annual payments.

Finally, he demanded that the procedures for assistance be streamlined, and recalled that the compensation promised by the government in 2020 (due to the drought) was paid nine months later.