The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau presents on Friday an orientation pact for the renewal of generations in agriculture, intended to facilitate the replacement of the numerous farmers retiring soon and the transitions in the face of climate change. Result of a consultation launched at the end of 2022, this pact must be reflected in a “guidance and future bill” for agriculture, supposed to be examined in Parliament in the first quarter, but also in regulatory and budgetary measures .
His presentation was postponed several times. The objective is to face two challenges, explained Marc Fesneau’s cabinet: the retirement of almost half of farm managers within 10 years and the need to produce in quantity and quality sufficient under new climatic constraints while participating in ecological transitions.
The pact, presented during a trip by Marc Fesneau to Seine-Maritime, includes four axes, detailed his office. The first aims to reconcile agriculture and society by, for example, facilitating the discovery of living professions through visits by schoolchildren or internships for college students on farms. The second axis wants to “bring about the emergence of a new generation of farmers at the forefront of ecological transitions” with in particular the intervention in agricultural education of experts in key areas such as hydraulics or robotics.
The third axis “aims to redesign production systems at farm scale” with support for farmers wishing to set up or carrying out an ecological transition project. It will mainly involve the creation of France Services Agriculture, a structure intended to serve as a one-stop shop for access to various advisory and training services. This axis also includes the deployment from 2024 of a guarantee fund to facilitate the granting of two billion euros in loans, already announced. The fourth axis of the pact aims to redesign production systems but this time at the scale of sectors and territories.
For example, the government wishes to facilitate water storage projects by speeding up the processing of possible disputes, with the ministry considering a “presumption of emergency” and the removal of a level of administrative jurisdiction. Livestock buildings could also benefit from these measures, the cabinet said. The axis also provides for a fund – of 180 million euros in 2024 then 200 million in 2025 and 2026 – to support the restructuring of a sector that must transform in the face of climate change.
