This is one of the major challenges of the ecological transition. The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau announced on Sunday a 15% increase in his ministry’s budget in 2024 and the outline of the future agricultural orientation law, intended to help young and new farmers and to plan the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the sector.
The agricultural orientation bill, which had initially been announced for the autumn, should be “examined in Parliament by December, probably at first reading in the National Assembly”, indicated the minister during the “Terre de Jim” rally in Cambrai (North) organized by the Young Farmers union (JA), close to the majority FNSEA union.
An agricultural land holding fund
The future law is based on a “pact”, which also includes regulatory measures, he said. A “carrying fund” for agricultural land in the amount of 400 million euros will thus be implemented “in the coming months”, indicated Marc Fesneau, who wants a logic of “accompaniment” rather than ” standards”, often criticized by farmers.
This fund will intervene in participation in national or regional holding funds which buy land to make it available to farmers “in a progressive manner in order to allow them to become buyers in turn “at the time of their choice” and “if they wish to acquire it”.
“Access to land is at the heart of the issue of settling in the agricultural sector,” he recalled. “It is increasingly an obstacle to the establishment of young farmers.”
Many “Nima”, candidates for installation
In an aging world that has fewer and fewer farm managers, 60% of candidates for setting up in agriculture are indeed known by the acronym “Nima” (not from the agricultural world), and therefore without land. nor material capital, according to the Chambers of Agriculture.
These should also be put to use, with an increase in their budgets, to become the pivots of transmissions of exploitation, with in particular the creation of a network “France Service Agriculture”, said the minister. “We will have to ensure the resilience of projects (new operations, editor’s note), in particular in the face of climate change”, warned Marc Fesneau.
As part of ecological planning, 500 million euros are planned to reduce the use of phytosanitary products, and 100 million euros for a vegetable protein plan.
A food sovereignty fund
The government is also planning a “food sovereignty and ecological transition fund” to “enable farms to locally adapt their economic model to the requirements of decarbonization of activities, development of renewable energy production or adaptation to change climate”.
For 2024, the ministry’s budget will increase by “nearly one billion euros” to support these transitions, around 15% more than the 5.9 billion euros in 2023, according to the ministry.
And over three years, the State’s additional effort will reach “2.6 to 2.7 billion” by 2026, the minister specified in his speech.
Tax incentives
In the budget debate, Marc Fesneau also announced the possibility of creating “tax incentives” to support replacement services for farmers, crucial services for breeders who cannot leave their livestock to go on vacation, and are often victims of ‘burnout.
On a more general level, and in order to “rebuild the link between agriculture and society”, it provides that “from the start of the 2024 school year” each child enrolled in an elementary school will be able to benefit from “an action to discover the agricultural activity”, around living things and the cycle of the seasons. The possibility of increasing the number of internships in an agricultural environment for middle school students was also mentioned as well as the creation of an “agricultural bachelor’s degree”.
The “Nourrir” collective, supported by 54 associations representing producers, consumers, environmental and fair trade activists (including the Confédération Paysanne and Greenpeace) regretted that this presentation was made in front of the JA agricultural union alone. “The creation of France Service Agriculture could have represented a strong symbol of change, but we do not see any significant change” which would allow “NIMA” to access land to ensure the agroecological transition, indicates a press release, regretting “a too great a concentration of land”.