2023-05-06 15:48:05
“We will cover the loss of crops or the loss of funds”, specifies this Saturday the Minister of Agriculture, during a visit to the department.
The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau, visiting the Pyrénées-Orientales on Saturday, promised farmers that they would be compensated for the losses suffered due to the exceptional drought which hit the department. “There is distress among these people who cannot have access to water, who can lose everything“, declared the minister during a press conference in a fruit cooperative that he had just visited in Ille-sur-Têt.
«We will cover the loss of crops or the loss of funds“, he added, referring in particular to the arborists likely to lose not only their harvest but also their trees. “We need to speed up the device.“so that compensation can be received more quickly than usual, also estimated Marc Fesneau. “We can’t pay farmers in April 2024. It’s a crisis situation like the Covid“, he said.
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“Nothing concrete today”
Guy Banyuls, an operator whom the minister also visited in Espira-de-l’Agly, affirmed that there was “nothing concrete today” in terms of compensation, describing his situation as “catastrophic“. While his vines should survive the drought, he fears seeing all of his apricot trees perish for lack of water. “It needs heavy rain“, he said. In Ille-sur-Têt, the gendarmes held some 200 meters away about thirty demonstrators brandishing CGT flags which rang their pots.
Measurements “crisis“, including new water restrictions, must be announced on Tuesday by the prefect of the Pyrénées-Orientales, then come into force on Wednesday, in particular in “the territories of Têt and Agly», two coastal rivers crossing part of the department. This border department with Spain is the most affected by the drought in France. It has not experienced a comparable situation since 1959, the date of the first measurements of this type by department, according to data from Météo-France.
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