Socialist senator Sébastien Pla and National Rally deputy Julien Rancoule spoke about the issue of bad weather, which affected Val-de-Dagne and Limoux. Once again, the relevance and effectiveness of compensation for victims of these climatic hazards is uncertain. Explanations.
After the bad weather that hit the western part of the Aude department from the evening of Friday the 17th to Sunday the 19th of May, causing significant damage to the vines, the time has come to find out how the winegrowers will be affected by this new hazard may be compensated.
This mechanism discourages a large number of operators from taking out hail insurance.
This is the question that the socialist senator from Aude Sébastien Pla raised in a correspondence with the office of the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau on Tuesday 21 May. “The recurrence of extreme climatic events such as drought, frost and hail highlights the necessary adjustment of the insurance compensation, which is based on the calculation of the Olympic average, which no longer matters when the harvest is affected all the years. This mechanism discourages a large number of the operators from taking out insurance against hail, to the extent that the compensation is not commensurate with the operating losses compared to a year without hazards. regrets the parliamentarian.
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“If the crop insurance system has the advantage of existing, it is urgent to adapt it by improving the assessment of the climate impact over a longer period, for example, but also and above all by better anticipating the need support to deal with changes on the farms , helps farmers in the long term” adds the one who is vice-chairman of the wine and wine group in the Senate.
A medium- and long-term analysis, but Sébastien Pla also wants faster measurements. He suggests thus “the extension to affected Aude operators of the one-stop-shop extraordinary solidarity fund and the implementation of tax relief on undeveloped land on damaged plots, exemption from social security contributions and debt relief, without which many farmers, including many young, newly established farmers, who go bankruptcy”.
Response from the Ministry of Agriculture regarding compensation for damage
An emergency and a climatic event, which is also the reason for an oral question formulated in the National Assembly this Tuesday, May 21, by the deputy of the National Rally, Audois Julien Rancoule. Insists “about the seriousness of these local episodes” and the fact that they could “be underestimated from Paris” then “these losses threaten the survival of several farms”the parliamentarian called for “the release of the National Solidarity Fund with the publication of an immediate ministerial decree”.
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In his answer, the Minister of Agriculture came up with several elements. First and foremost regarding the insured winegrowers. “Aude, like other departments, was particularly affected by hail episodes with a thousand hectares of vines affected out of the 60,000 ha in the department. An expert mission was carried out.”. However, Marc Fesneau ruled out the hypothesis of a reform of the insurance system. “This system has just been reformed and makes it possible to take into account the damage caused by hail, which has not yet been taken into account, which can be given to farmers in the event of a disaster like this. We have taken steps with many European states to ask for the threshold to be raised, and we hope to achieve satisfaction in the coming months – calculation based on data from the last five years of production – which worked with classic climate damage, but which today with climate change is no longer suitable”.
Regarding those who are not insured for this type of event, “they will benefit from national solidarity in addition to 50% of the losses. The system of relief on undeveloped land and the system of deferring social contributions for a certain number of them will be possible from now on. Finally, I asked my services to see on a case-by-case basis, what further measures can be taken, the state will be there..
