The government to the aid of farmers in the Pyrénées-Orientales. The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau announced this Saturday to grant them financial aid of 2 million euros, “in the face of an exceptional situation of drought which persists in the department”, in particular in the Agly area. This will take the form of payment of social security contributions, according to a press release from the ministry.
“The effective payment of these social contributions will take place in the fall, by then farmers will be able to benefit from an automatic deferral of their social contributions”, specifies the Ministry of Agriculture. To speed up the management of files, “additional human resources will be deployed”, he adds.
On the farmers’ side, we welcome this announcement. “This help with paying social security contributions was one of our requests. (…) The envelope of 2 million euros is correct”, reacted the president of the chamber of agriculture of the department Fabienne Bonet to L’Indépendant, while demanding “the release of exceptional urgent aid for farms in the Agly Valley”.
Last month, on a visit to the Pyrénées-Orientales, Marc Fesneau had already assured the farmers of his support, promising them that they would be compensated for the losses suffered due to the drought. “We will cover the loss of crops or the loss of funds,” added the minister, referring in particular to arborists likely to lose not only their harvest, but also their trees. “We have to speed up the system” so that compensation can be received more quickly than usual, had also estimated Marc Fesneau.
