“We are constantly writing checks, for things that are increasing, and we have no more income” : this is how Sébastien Chefdeville, breeder in the south of Creuse, sums up his professional situation. Like eighty other farmers, he came to demonstrate on Monday March 22 in Guéret, at the call of two unions, the FDSEA and the JA. “We can’t do it anymore, we don’t know where we’re going… It’s madness“, he adds.
“We don’t even want to anymore”
Like him, the breeders present say they are strangled by the increase in charges on their farms. The price of non-road diesel, fuel for agricultural machinery, has doubled in a few months, that of fertilizers by three. Animal feed also went up in flames. “The war in Ukraine has a good back”slips Sébastien Chefdeville. “These increases started long before.”
In these conditions, many are worried about the future of the profession. “We don’t even want to go to work anymore, because when we get into the tractor, we know that the day can be 100 liters of diesel, so 200 euros. And yet, we haven’t started harvesting . There, we will do days at 1000 euros! It is the love of our animals that holds us”sums up Edouard, a sheep breeder in the north of the department.
The walled prefecture street
Unions and farmers believe that the aid announced by the government for the profession in mid-March is insufficient: a envelope of 400 million euros for breeders, as well as a discount of 15 cents per liter of fueland an advance refund of fuel tax, or TICPE. “We are given checks, but what we are asking for is a reduction in taxes”claims Mathieu Chefdeville, the son of Sébastien, also a breeder.
– Ninnog Louis
– Ninnog Louis
Claims that the demonstrators exposed for more than two hours to the prefect of Creuse and the deputy deputy Vincent Turpinat, who came to meet them in front of the gates of the prefecture. The farmers then walled up rue de la préfecture in Guéret, before leaving the city center around 6 p.m.