The first estimates of the 2020 harvest in France are alarming. The comments from the field confirm the figures published by Agreste and reflect an extremely worrying situation.

In common wheat and barley, yield losses are very significant, 20-30% depending on the region. Therefore, the wheat crop would be the second lowest in volume since 2004, after 2016!

Oilseeds also showed sharp falls in volumes for the third consecutive year, combined with a very worrying drop in areas of 1.5 to 1.2 million hectares in 1 year. Technical deadlocks for pest protection are increasingly deterring growers and risk reducing rapeseed to less than a million hectares, jeopardizing the processing industries and the supply of rapeseed meal . for breeding

In beets, the decrease in area will be added to the expected yields to plummet, in the order of 40 to 50%, due in particular to the massive attacks of uncontrollable aphids due to the lack of phytosanitary solutions. What is at stake is the future of the sugar industry and the open door to massive imports of sugar from European countries that have repealed the ban on neonicotinoids in the face of a health emergency and economic risk for the sector. .

To this is added the climatic context: difficulties to sow in autumn, exceptionally rainy winter, spring drought ...

Recall that last Friday the Accounts Commission for Agriculture highlighted a drop in Ferme France's net profit by almost 10% in 2019. The drop in gross value added is observed in 8 regions of 13, and the trade deficit it is expanded in many productions, up to at least three billion euros in fruit.

Faced with this situation, which will have dramatic consequences for farmers' incomes, the FNSEA calls for an urgent reaction to get French agriculture back on track for growth and competitiveness.

The recovery plan is a real opportunity to embark on this path. The Government must position agriculture and support investment, research and innovation, by sufficient means.

Otherwise, it will be a continuation of the weakening of French food sovereignty and greater dependence on imports, while 9 out of 10 French people express after CoVid their desire to obtain more local food.

It is time to materialize the impulse launched by the government in 2019 with the "Productive Pact" for full employment, the development of industry and agriculture in France.

Although the CoVid-19 crisis has replaced the issue of sovereignty with basic health and food needs, the ambitious economic recovery plan prepared by the government must fully integrate agriculture.