June 4, 2022. Hailstones the size, sometimes, of a ping pong ball fell in around forty cereal departments across France, and knocked down ears of wheat, corn, rapeseed or barley. David Vallée, a farmer from Yvelines, lost 90% of this year’s harvest. In the aftermath of the storm, it is “devastated”: “There are no more grains on the ears. It was violent! I thought it was going to break the windows of the bay window. I was looking out the window, but when I saw hailstones coming, frankly, I fell to the ground.”
The government has promised to ease the charges and spread the repayments of farmers’ loans. David Vallée is a farmer from father to son. Based in Sonchamp, south of Rambouillet, he farms 200 hectares of cereals. At 45, it was the first time he had witnessed a storm of such intensity. And a few months later, he remains very affected. “Frankly, I am in the same psychological state after this episode which was really very violent. The devastated fields, I watched them for a month and a half in front of my house and it was just horrible. And today, once the harvest done, I believe it is even worse.”
“There is the whole economic side to manage with the banks and with the insurance companies. On the psychological level, it is hard to live with and complicated.”
David Valleyon franceinfo
Visually, its fields look like “stubble” compared to two months ago, now that everything is harvested. “I was able to get something out of it, but it’s a tiny fraction of what I could have harvested. I harvested 10%, roughly, of my crops. I lost 90% to the hail .” The farmer says he is still traumatized by the sudden loss of almost all of his salary this year. He wonders : “It’s my salary for the year. Today, instead of recovering 100% of my salary, I recovered 10% and the rest will be with the insurance. Will they help me? reimburse 80%, 70%? I don’t know… 50%? I don’t know!”
Have these repeated meteorological episodes discouraged him from pursuing his profession? “We had 2016, too, where there was a lot of rain. But hey, the yields were still good. Nothing to do with that. For me, it’s one of the biggest losses I’ve suffered. I’m fight but I’m a little discouraged. After the harvest is over, it took me two or three days to bear the brunt. It will be a cross marked for life, hoping never to experience this again. And I don’t wish on anyone, no farmer, even my worst enemy, to go through what I went through this year. It’s very, very difficult.”
The consequences will weigh for “a year” at least. “Today, I have to reseed my plots with wheat that I don’t have and that I will have to buy, or from my neighbors, to reseed. I have to buy fertilizer , whose prices are now three times higher than the usual price, with a cash flow at the bottom of the daisies. So yes, the year is going to be very, very tough.”
At the beginning of June, he wondered if he was going to be able to feed his children. “It’s a reality. Even if I think I will get there with the insurance, I will still have to negotiate with the banks, if they can give me a break on the loans in progress. I will never have enough cash to either sow seeds, or repay my loans, or feed my children. I will be able to feed them but it will be hard. Everything that is not vital, we will have to try to do without this year.”
Being a farmer remains a “nice job” despite difficulties, “We have the impression that every year, we have shit falling on our face, but it makes sense to do this job there” proclaims David Vallée. And if his children wanted to take up the torch? “I will not discourage them but I will encourage them to study just in case. My parents did that for me. I have a diploma and today, if I am no longer a farmer, I can do another job, Which I obviously don’t want.”
The grain export agreement between Ukraine and Russia has lowered wheat prices. This is a good thing for food security, comments David Vallée. He remains cautious and wonders if Russia will respect him in the long term.