The practice may appear as a lag in full drought alert in Alsace. Water restrictions have been in effect for individuals and businesses for several days, but they do not concern maize producers. You may have noticed it on the side of the roads, the fields continue to be watered at the moment. And this despite a historically dry month of July, and temperatures that should still exceed 35°C this week.
The agricultural world must go beyond the question of productivity. – Michèle Grosjean, president of Alsace Nature
“How do you want to convey messages of sobriety if we see these large water jets operating in broad daylight?”asks Michèle Grosjean, president of the Alsace Nature association. “The climate is changing, the conditions are no longer the same, the agricultural world must go beyond the question of productivity”she says. “I believe citizens are fully aware of that.”
“It is incomprehensible that we do not take measures to reduce the watering of this type of crop”continues Michèle Grosjean. “Farmers tell us that thanks to this watering, they bring biodiversity. One of them even told me that he had seen a toad in his cornfield… It’s really jumping bells -foot than to answer thus.” The president of Alsace Nature calls on the administration to “not to respond to the injunctions of the agricultural world but to take preventive measures”.
“It is our income that is at stake”
“Irrigation is not done just anyhow”justifies Christian Schott, cereal farmer in Schirrhein, near Haguenau, and local manager of the FDSEA. “It’s managed in a very technical and precise way, with monitoring by the Chamber of Agriculture and Météo France, which gives us the daily consumption of the plants. We put in place all the efforts to prevent water from get lost unnecessarily”, he says.
But the farmer says he understands the incomprehension of some individuals. “Of course, when you tell him he has to stop watering his garden and the farmer next door continues to water his fields, it’s always complicated in terms of image and justification. “, explains Christian Schott. “Except that for us, it’s our income that’s at stake. We need that until August 15-20”says the cereal producer, while recalling that corn consumes anyway less water than wheatgrown from winter to spring.