Drought: Cerdanya breeders contest the “grass growth index” invoked by insurers

2023-12-20 11:24:20

If farmers across France are turning over the road signs, it is in Cerdagne that this action intended to denounce “a world that is walking on its head” takes on its full meaning. Because in Cerdanya, in the high cantons of the Pyrénées-Orientales, it has hardly rained for two years. In the spring, irrigation restrictions even strained relations between French farmers and their Spanish neighbors around the question of water sharing.

And without water, nothing really grows, that’s the problem. At the start of the summer, the breeders of Lower Cerdanya could only note that the meadows remained thin, far too thin to hope to build up the reserves that the herds need during the winter, once they have come down from the summer pastures. But, they said to themselves, we are insured against this risk. And this is where the matter becomes complicated.

“There is a complete discrepancy between the insurance system based on a “grass growth index” and the reality we are experiencing,” deplored Christian Tallant, a breeder in Sainte-Léocadie, since the summer. Where losses are estimated at 80%, the system, based on the analysis of satellite photos provided by Airbus, indicates that the grass grew normally, or almost. Difficult to understand.

One of the avenues mentioned to explain this dysfunction concerns the size of the mesh retained, the portion of territory considered. Too large, it could include the summer pastures, above 1,800 meters above sea level, where the grass grew properly this year. “But what is absurd is that neither the insurers nor the State want to admit that the system does not work, everyone passes the hot potato on to each other, while the experts who came to estimate the losses on cereals, in the fields next door therefore recorded a decline in production of… 80%,” continues this breeder.

Last weekend, at the call of the FDSEA and young farmers from the Pyrénées-Orientales, around thirty tractors filtered traffic on two major roundabouts in Cerdagne. Some local elected officials joined the protest, including Michel Garcia, mayor of Les Angles and departmental councilor, and senator Jean Sol who summed up: “Either the insurers take their responsibilities, or the State will have to find an envelope. »And it is urgent, insist the breeders. If the animals are brought down as late as possible, the fodder reserves will quickly become exhausted. Cerdanya is missing 9,000 tonnes to arrive until next spring, representing a bill of 2 million euros.