July 2022 will most likely be the driest July on record in France since 1959, according to Météo France. “For some plants like corn, it’s screwed“, deplores Christiane Lambert, the president of the FNSEA, this Thursday, July 27 on franceinfo. She denounces the “delay” of France on irrigation and water storage and calls on the French to “play solidarity by buying French products“.
>> BEFORE/AFTER. Visualize the extent of the drought in France from space
franceinfo: Which sectors of agriculture are particularly suffering today?
Christiane Lambert : Today, it is the meadows that are completely dried out. It is the corn that is thirsty, the sunflowers and the vine that burn, and also the sun that has a hair-drying effect on the fruits and burns them. There is also obviously breeding: when the temperatures are high like that, there is less milk production. At over 35 degrees, it’s less than 10% milk production. There is no sector that does not suffer from this drought. Yields are down by 30% to 50% in certain territories, such as Burgundy, Occitanie, Charente. However, throughout France, cereal production held up, since we are roughly speaking to a 2% to 3% drop in yields. We will cope with French cereals and moreover, we have more and more calls from countries like Algeria or Tunisia, which had turned to Russia because it was cheaper and which today today are out of deliveries.
This drought is extremely strong. Orders restrict the use of water in 91 departments, including for agricultural purposes. What are the consequences ?
Crops need water every day. When we are asked to stop irrigation immediately, telling us that it will rain in ten days, we want to say that in ten days, the crops will be dead. The difficulty we have is to ensure continuity with a minimum of water brought to the plant so that it holds up well and that we can have a restart when the rains come. I can tell you all the same that for certain plants like corn, it’s screwed up. We are in full fertilization and when there are no ears, there is no grain and therefore no yield.
☀Drought in agriculture
“The meadows are completely dry, the corn and the sunflower are thirsty, the vines are burning and the fruits are suffering from the high temperatures”, declares Christiane Lambert, president of the FNSEA. pic.twitter.com/ZtdtHJrLuD
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) July 28, 2022
Should we review the way we manage water in France and equip farms, for example, so that they can store excess rain in winter?
Absolutely. Some countries do it much better than we do. The irony is that this year, we are going to buy fodder in Spain, a country further south, drier, but which uses much more irrigation and which has larger stocks. It is completely insane to import straw that comes from them. The Varenne agricole de l’eau, concluded by the Prime Minister in January, plans to increase the storage capacity. In winter, we have torrential rains and more and more floods. If we could capture even 10% of this water rushing out to sea, if we could use it when we needed it, that would be good. Today, only 1.7% of rainwater is stored in France. Spain stores 25%. We are not doing enough. In France, we have increased our water reserves by 1% in ten years. At the same time, Europe increased them by 13%. We watch the rain fall, go away and we don’t stockpile for purely ideological and political reasons. We have taken a huge delay. It should come as no surprise that fruits and vegetables are expensive. If we don’t have water, they cost more to produce.
Should farmers be helped to buy their fuel? Is specific aid needed for farmers?
Agricultural fuel has doubled in one year and this is a very significant increase. Fertilizers increased by more than 100%. Cardboard, steel, labor, everything has increased. It is logical that we can pass on these increasing charges, otherwise we will be in the red. The best help we can get is for the French to show solidarity, support French farmers by buying French products first.