“And not using a truthful value for water, we will’t revive agriculture or feed our inhabitants!” Jean-Philippe Frère, an olive grower in Rouleau and vice-president for water on the Alpes-Maritimes Chamber of Agriculture, is nervous. The wet climate of latest weeks won’t change something.
The issue: the dearth of uniform agricultural water pricing within the sector has led to extreme droughts in 2022 and 2023. This phenomenon will inevitably repeat itself on account of local weather change.
“We’re one of many few sectors in France that irrigates crops with ingesting water. There isn’t any twin community to provide farmers with uncooked supplies. The result’s: many professionals pay the identical water charges as people following they work, as a result of communities and administration unions don’t all implement pricing particular to their actions. Some farmers are on the verge of submitting for chapter.he panicked.
Troubled plant producers
In Valdreul, it hangs like a sword of Damocles over the farm of Marie Alzhiari, a producer of perfumes, fragrant and medicinal vegetation with a singular profession.
The forty-year-old nature lover, a former dealer who labored in growth help for African NGOs, spent all her financial savings in 2019 to purchase a 1.5-hectare plot of land on this commune within the Haut-Grass area.
Right here, with out mechanization and with the seasonal assist of a woofer, she grows mint, holy basil, mallow, elderberry, and different hashish flowers, making floral elixirs (within the type of Bach’s flowers), lip balms, natural natural teas, and even reselling a few of the flowers to a big perfumer below an unique contract.
In June 2023, the Suez Canal discovered that water payments for the Suez Canal had been over €5,000 for lower than a 12 months’s water use, however now they’re over €8,000, which has largely hampered the undertaking.
“I already had a giant invoice for 2020. However my companions who work in water administration and I suspected there was a leak, so I invested in all of the tasks: creating manholes, a micro-irrigation system, to greatest handle a useful resource affected by local weather disasters. “, One one who calculated a marketing strategy based mostly on agricultural water costs earlier than launching pressured “Realized at school”.
In France, that is on common half the non-public value.
Effectively: “Within the territory of the Tri-Valley Blended Alliance [Andon, Caille, Gréolières, Saint-Auban, Séranon et Valderoure] Answerable for water administration, with a charge of three.50 euros per cubic meter… in comparison with 0.30 euros per cubic meter within the Mas commune [à 30 km]managed by one other union”Stéphane Maillard, deputy mayor of Valdreuil, breeder and winemaker, identified that for Jean-Philippe Frère, that is an unacceptable inequality and he has taken up the matter, calling for a political begin.
“This case is loopy! Launched the Vice President of the Agricultural Chamber of Commerce. Particularly because the work of Assises de l’eau, [menés par la préfecture] This implies that agricultural consumption on the Riviera accounts for lower than 2% of complete consumption.” Based on statistics, the nationwide proportion is 57%. Sustainability Division.
In Valdrell and surrounding areas, this pricing is dealt with by the Tri-Valley Blended Alliance. “I reminded the chairman by e mail just a few weeks in the past: No response, that is unacceptable!””, exclaimed Jean-Philippe Frère, who can be president of the Federation of Farmers’ Unions of the Alpes-Maritimes (FDSEA 06).
“Our problem is that we’ve a really lengthy community, which makes it inconceivable for us to construct a second agricultural irrigation community at a excessive price.” Yves Fournel, mayor of Cayes and president of the commerce union, defends himself
Elected officers clarified “Additional analysis is ongoing”particularly assessing the wants of native farmers, “At present not encrypted”.
“In Europe, agricultural product pricing can solely be tolerated if the worth discount for the advantage of farmers is compensated by different customers. On this unbiased union, there are few subscribers. Due to this fact, it’s needed for the member municipalities to examine the sustainability of agricultural merchandise. Implement a financially balanced construction of this charge”we emphasize the City Group of the Grasse Space (CAPG).
“If nothing is finished, the meals autonomy of the sector, which is worrying in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, won’t be 1%, however zero!”Jean-Philippe Frère, Vice President of the Chamber of Agriculture
“The time for negotiation just isn’t the pure time…”They expressed their regrets collectively to their neighbours, farmers Marie Alzhiari and Stéphane Maillard, from Valdreul.
Jean-Philippe Frère goes additional: “Within the sector, there are solely a thousand farms, which is unlucky! The common age of farmers is 57. In 7 years, we’ll lose the opposite half. If we don’t implement all of the instruments, we’ll now not have agricultural and meals autonomy within the sector, which is worrying in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we won’t be at 1% as we’re at the moment, however begin from scratch!”
Along with the Valdrell division, the vice chairman of the Agricultural Chamber additionally referred to as for a single agricultural water charge: “In Grasse, and even within the Good Côte d’Azur metropolitan space, the worth per cubic meter is round 0.40 euros; in Val-de-Rour it’s 3 euros extra and in some cities within the Higher Var valley it’s 6 euros! Completely unfair competitors”.
“The issue can’t be solved in a single day”
“Implementing incentive pricing or linking all new tasks to water won’t resolve the issue of more and more strained entry to sources”As well as, the companies of CAPG had been highlighted and this subject can be on the menu of the convention in just a few days.
“Storage, implementation of agroecological practices, devoted networks, extraction from pure sources… The answer undoubtedly lies in a collection of solutions. (…) In any case, the issue can’t be solved in a single day”.
CAPG additionally mentioned it had commissioned the design workplace “To raised perceive the wants and practices of farmers across the Tri-Valley Alliance”.
On her farm, Marie Alzhiari nonetheless believes in a contented ending … and prays the summer season warmth does not arrive too quickly.
