2023-12-19 17:35:49
The Ministry of Agriculture announced, Tuesday, December 19, “an additional envelope of 150 million euros” to finance agro-environmental and climate measures (MAEC) subscribed in 2023, aid intended to support the transition of farms.
This budgetary increase had been requested for months by the Confédération paysanne, the third agricultural union. “This is a first victory for all the farmers (…) mobilized for four months to denounce the under-budgeting of the MAEC »reacted the union in a communiqué.
Financed 80% by a European fund (EAFRD) through the CAP (common agricultural policy), this MAEC aid compensates for the “additional costs and shortfalls” linked to the ecological transition of farms: promoting meadows, developing free-range livestock farming, planting hedges, using less or no fertilizers and pesticides, etc.
The ministry specifies that, for the 2023 campaign, the budget dedicated to “Areal MAEC” (most of the MAEC, taking into account the surface area of the farm) amounted to 820 million euros – including 641 million from European credits, 117 million from the Ministry of Agriculture and 62 million from the agencies of the water – to which is added the envelope of 150 million euros announced this Tuesday.
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Envelope deployed at the beginning of 2024
“It appears, in view of the feedback in the different territories, that the demand for MAEC subscriptions was greater than expected, which reflects the desire of a number of farmers to follow an agroecological trajectory”specifies the ministry.
The additional envelope of 150 million euros “will be deployed at the beginning of 2024 on the MAEC and on support for the conversion to organic agriculture for the 2023 campaign, thanks to the assistance of water agencies and a contribution from the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture”.
The Peasant Confederation believes that this budgetary increase “going in the right direction”. However, she waits “to decipher the precise distribution of this envelope between the State budget and the water agencies (…)to the extent that the government renounced in the PLF [projet de loi de finances] 2024 to increase the tax for diffuse pollution and the water fee for irrigation, collected by water agencies ».
The union is campaigning for the MAEC, presented by the ministry as “a key tool for the implementation of the agroecological project for France”, be extended to the entire territory. They currently meet the criteria of « priorisations » and of “zoning”different depending on the region.
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