Faced with an exceptional situation which has led to measures to restrict the use of water for professional purposes in the Eastern Pyrenees department in 2023, Marc FESNEAU, French Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty announces the mobilization of the European agricultural crisis reserve to the tune of 6 million euros.

This simplified system will aim to compensate for the consequences of irrigation restrictions, the losses caused directly by drought being already covered where applicable by the new insurance system which entered into force in 2023. This exceptional system will not intervene therefore only on crops which are mainly irrigated in the department, some of which are arboricultural and market gardening.

This will consist of aid per hectare in the amount of €1,000/ha for apricots, peaches and nectarines, €800/ha for apples and pears, €200/ha for almonds, €800/ha ha for artichokes, celery stalks and zucchini and €480/ha for melons, watermelons and squash.

Producers will be able to submit a request for aid from November 2 to FranceAgriMer. Payments will be made before January 31, 2024.

This aid complements the measures already put in place in the spring to support farmers in the Eastern Pyrenees, in particular the exceptional envelope for covering social contributions (PEC) to the tune of 2 million euros.

Vine being a poorly irrigated crop, it will not be eligible for this system but the Government will stand alongside wine growers who are facing an exceptional situation, as it has always been, and in particular this year with the deployment of a crisis distillation system (200 million euros). At the structural level, given the multiplicity of difficulties that this sector is going through, the reflection will have to focus on intervention tools linked to the prospective strategy currently being developed by the sector capable of enabling wine growers to redress the situation. on the long term.

Marc Fesneau, Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty declared: "This exceptional aid, which will cover the consequences of irrigation restrictions, in addition, where applicable, to the national solidarity compensation for losses linked to drought, should enable our farmers to cope with a difficult situation in the short term. But we must also plan so that they are better protected because the objective is to maintain resilient agriculture in the face of the hazards generated by climate change".