Their video had its little success last summer on social networks. In this parody of the tube Private partner, two farmers from Hauts-de-France denounced the “administrative mille-feuille” that they face in their profession. “I’ve had enough of regulations, decrees and all these rules that tell me to stay within the norms,” sang Bruno Cardot and Thierry Baillie in a verse that could be taken up by the many demonstrators of recent days.
Among the demands of farmers in the streets are the increase in taxes and prices, but also, therefore, this time-consuming administrative burden. Which ? 20 minutes asked several of them all over France, so that they could concretely explain their constraints.
Laure is “tearing her hair out”
Laure may well be an agricultural engineer, but she is “tearing her hair out” about it. Full time. Responsible for aid files, CAP subsidies, and the proper maintenance of certifications for a tree farm in La Crau, in Bouches-du-Rhône, administrative mille-feuille is her daily dish. The farm produces 1,200 tonnes of peaches, nectarines and apricots on an area of 70 hectares and hires up to 70 seasonal workers between April and October. “We are around ten permanent employees and I do this full time. And again, we have an accountant who helps us, but even he sometimes has difficulty finding his way,” explains the forty-year-old.
In addition to recording each treatment, each planting, each size, in order to meet the requirements of the different standards, Laure wars with the CAP files and sometimes loses battles. Like most recently: “This year we wanted to apply for a grant for new plantings. We had to send the file before September 15, it left on the 17th because we were fully into the season with many other things to manage.” Bottom line: 10,000 to 12,000 euros in shortfall. “In addition, you have to order the plans from the nursery a year in advance. It’s not all very coherent,” she concludes.
Another example on the purchase of equipment for the modernization of farms. “There may be assistance to purchase certain tractors or machines, but with specific models or even brands. So much so that we can find machines on our own that are cheaper than those offered or second-hand ones to buy back, but they don’t fit into any box.” But what annoys the agronomist the most – apart from the unbeatable Spanish competition on the cost of labor, which represents 60% of the costs of tree farming – are the supermarkets (Large and medium-sized stores) : the latter can take back the goods because the shape or size is not the right one or the fruits have a brown stain due to having been in contact with the branch during its growth. A loss equal to 5% of annual production. “Distributors, like consumers, need to evolve on this subject,” hopes Laure.
For Isabelle, “it adds a lot of stress”
By purchasing a farm in Bourg-Bruche (Bas-Rhin) in 2019, Isabelle Descombe “did not at all” imagine what awaited her on the administrative side. “You have to register everything, justify everything,” complains the former agricultural worker, now specialized in raising her 150 sheep and around ten suckling cows. Animals with whom she certainly spends time, with the exception of “four to five days per month, often divided into half-days”. Periods during which the thirty-something looks at the numerous declarations and papers to complete. “It adds a lot of stress,” she regrets, citing a case that has occupied her for almost two months. Since an agricultural aid inspector came to visit him. “She had already checked a lot of stuff by satellite but she still had to see some places on site. And she found that there were groves missing for less than a hundred meters. In the 2015 declaration made by the previous owner, they were listed but have since been uprooted and only trees remain. »
A detail ? That’s what the native of the Territoire de Belfort thought… Except that she has since been asked for supporting documents. “I wasn’t there when it was removed so I had to check with the pastoral land association which had managed it, which itself is in contact with the community of communes. » Not easy! And again without result, since a procedure was also initiated. Isabelle Descombe is today threatened with a partial withdrawal of her aid from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
“It risks losing 3 to 5%,” estimates Yoann Lecoustey. The director of FDSEA 67 was called to the rescue and has since “started a voluntary appeal procedure” in order to prove the innocence of the breeder. Who is not alone in this case in the department. “In 2015, we had to say where we had trees, groves, brush, ponds, forests. We even had to give the characteristics of the trees with the width of their corolla! », he explains again. “But since we didn’t really know the point of all that, many farmers didn’t do it perfectly. There was no control until then, but it is accelerating. It has become hyper administrative, hyper techno with procedures that come out of the hat. All this wastes time, energy and contributes to farmers’ frustration. » It is not Isabelle Descombe who will say the opposite.
“When we make hay, we can’t do anything else,” complains Jean
For several days, Jean and his fellow farmers have been blocking the A64 between Toulouse and Bayonne, near the commune of Carbonne. The thirty-year-old, at the head of a 90 hectare farm, manages a breeding of 100 adult ewes geared towards “the production of lamb meat”. For him, administration is “an important part of daily life, at least half a day per week”, while he must combine his activity with another job to get by.
To declare his additional income, he had to fill out a brand new form, sent by the MSA (agricultural social security) “during hay season. And when you make hay, you can’t do anything else.” As a result, Jean sends the document a little late, and receives “a call to contribute 11,000 euros, compared to 1,500 euros normally. The paper that was missing, I had sent it two months earlier, but they did not process it, and I got a surcharge.” A “sanction contribution”, according to the breeder, who believes that “the MSA and the taxes could communicate with each other”.
He also points to “ecological laws”, while “all the efforts we make on carbon storage are wasted by looking for the products elsewhere”. In his farm, Jean Darolles must keep a very precise log of his animals. This ranges from medical treatment to sheep’s earrings. “As soon as an animal loses one, I have to say what day it lost it, which ear, when I order the new buckle, when I put it on…” Meanwhile, “guys in New Zealand don’t know not even how many animals they have and can export to France,” he complains. In the same way, “we are asked to declare when we sow plant cover, where, on what day, or to explain why we do not do it. Colleagues from the North must file a file to justify themselves when they have a meter of water in the fields.”