The Common Agricultural Policy for 2023-2027, which has just entered into force, is already confusing people

The Unified Agricultural Policy (UAP) for 2023-2027 came into force on January 1. The government has tightened the conditions for access to aid to support the ecological transition. These new rules achieve the ability to protest by both the FNSEA and the Confederate paysanne.

The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) represents a budget of 387 billion euros over 5 years, including 45 billion euros for France. And for what type of agriculture? To reach 18% of organic farmland by 2027, France will need to invest 1.7 billion euros, or 340 million per year, against 250 today.

These numbers, moving in the direction of more organic agriculture, confound its historical defenders, because in parallel “support aids” is deleted. What do these do “eco-diets“Are you going to re-green the French agricultural policy?

To take advantage of this, as soon as the UAA (Usable Agricultural Area) is more than 5%, it is necessary to consider practices on three types of surface: cropland, permanent pasture and permanent culture. Three access routes are provided to reach the eco-schemes.

First, agricultural practices, “green fee“: field crops, lawns, etc. The second involves certification HEV (High Ecological Value), a highly controversial label created by the State in 2012, and finally, the third corresponds to biodiversity: organic farming, agro-ecological infrastructures such as hedgerows, ponds…

The idea is to encourage farmers to diversify their crop rotations with cereals, maize, beets, alfalfa, but according to Patrick Langlois, president of the Loiret FDSEA, the administrative straitjacket is indigestible and the system is at points very difficult to master: “We are happy that we did not lose in terms of bonuses”it starts because FNSEA laments the loss of €50 per hectare over the previous two years.

“But when we figured out how to build it, we found that we needed software to do the math“says the president of FDSEA . “For example, we will have to plant sunflowers for grain growers, but when we plant, it is not very profitable as the birds take the seeds. In fact, it is simply the restoration of agricultural lands.

A polyculture-livestock farmer from Loir-et-Cher explains: “For everything we grow, we’ll have a percentage of the area we’re going to get. We get points depending on whether we achieve that or not.“ According to him, many operators are motivated to delegate this management “kafkaesque” in the Chamber of Agriculture,however, in reality, everyone should see this according to their farm and region.“

For example, if I leave an 8-hectare market garden and plant canola instead, I get the points I need for this eco-mode, which is absurd! I would like to understand this mechanism better to make a responsible choice!

Laurence Marandola, national secretary for the Confederation Paysanne, regrets that only 25% of the aid “re-greening30% compared to “(“green feeSome European nations have opted for 40%, so France sticks to the minimum effort.

“It has no ambition; we could have paid practices that actually provide environmental services. This is not it.”wash greener than green’ we wanted, but we guarantee that we will still be able to produce in 10-20 years.” Recently, the Paysanne Confederation obtained a distinction between the HVE and Organic Agriculture (EU) labels: an additional 30 euros premium per hectare for organic farming, i.e. 110 euros per hectare.

A step forward that unfortunately does not make up for the disappearance of organic care assistance. Recall that more than a quarter of organic farms in France do not benefit from any CAP subsidy. “Agricultural policy continues to support corn and beet to the detriment of other crops, and with the current challenges, this is unacceptable.“, laments Laurence Marandola.

“Although France still imports more fruit and vegetables for consumption than it produces domestically, there is still no aid for these in the new CAP. Imbalance is maintained, Specifies the National Secretary of the Peasant Confederation.

To help its members deal with the complexities of computing FNSEA created spreadsheets to simulate assistance. On the side of the Paysanne Confederation, training will be organized on April 4 in about sixty departments, including Indre.