A bill designed to encourage vocations and facilitate the resumption of agricultural operations must be presented next week by the new government, the Ministry of Agriculture announced on Monday.
This law in favor of the renewal of generations in agriculture will be presented on January 24 to the Council of Ministers, indicated the office of the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Marc Fesneau, reappointed to his functions.
The urgency of encouraging the next generation of farmers is recognized from one end of the political spectrum to the other at a time when the population of nearly 500,000 farm managers is aging.
The average age of farmers is 51.4 years, according to the latest agricultural census.
The minister estimates that a third of farmers – or 166,000 farmers or co-farmers – will retire in the coming decade.
One of the first bills that I will present with my government is a bill on the renewal of generations in agriculture, declared the new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal during a trip to Caen on Sunday, according to images broadcast by BFMTV .
If we want to remain a sovereign country, with strong agriculture (…) young people must be able to settle down, he stressed.
The bill must in particular create a new bac+3 level diploma, an agro bachelor’s degree, as well as the establishment of a France agricultural services network – a one-stop shop or single entry point for applicants for installation under the guide of the chambers of agriculture.
It also establishes the principle that each schoolchild benefits from at least one action to discover agriculture, such as a farm visit.
Originally, Mr. Fesneau carried a draft text with a more ambitious format: an agricultural orientation law – Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promise – backed by a pact. To build them, consultations were organized for six months at the national and regional levels.
The presentation of the law was postponed several times, annoying the agricultural profession.
During his greetings to the agricultural world on Monday, Marc Fesneau briefly mentioned the subject at the end of his speech, affirming that the bill was intended to assume sovereignty, to bring about a new generation (…), to prepare rather than suffer.