Annie Genevard needs to cut back “standards and procedures”, “ballasts” in accordance with the minister | EUROtoday

The Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, introduced, Saturday November 30, in a context of mobilization of farmers, a sequence of measures geared toward decreasing “ prohibitions, procedures, standards » which are as many “balls” which weigh, in accordance with her, on the sector.

“Farmers are fed up with bans, procedures, standards”she informed Agence France-Presse (AFP). “These are truly burdens that have accumulated to the point of weakening the competitiveness of farms”she added.

M^me Genevard introduced these measures in a context of mobilization of a part of the agricultural world and through a visit on Saturday to a dairy farm within the Loiret, the place she stated “listening”in entrance of round twenty farmers. “In this time of crisis and doubt I want to be by your side”M. informed them^me Genevard. “We are making farmers lose the very meaning of their profession”she estimated.

Guide ANSES’s work

The first is the creation of a “Steering Council for Crop Protection”. Created by decree, this Council, chaired by the minister and bringing collectively stakeholders together with farmers, analysis institutes and producers of phytosanitary merchandise, will intention to “prioritize instruction” by the Health Safety Agency (ANSES) requests for authorization of inputs, relying on the wants of the agricultural sectors.

In different phrases, for ANSES it will likely be a matter of transferring requests to put sure merchandise in the marketplace to the highest of the pile, with the intention to meet the pressing wants of sure crops. “We are asking Anses to work as a priority on orphaned or poorly provided uses”stated the minister. Plant safety firms will be capable to present “technical expertise because they are the ones who develop the products”. On the deserves of the selections (authorization or prohibition), “it is not a question of dictating decisions to ANSES, which is an independent agency”she assured AFP.

“I feel that the trail in direction of much less phyto is a path on which nobody will return. But for the sectors that are in disaster, we’d like ANSES to prioritize its work to [y] reply “she explained. This decree must also “improve the information of ministries (…) of Anses’ draft decisions”. He must also “ask ANSES to facilitate mutual recognition” of products already authorized at European level. ANSES is in the sights of certain unions for having banned or restricted the use of certain pesticides before this was the case in the EU.

“Brakes to production”

Concerning the French Biodiversity Office (OFB), which plays an environmental policing role and whose agents may find themselves facing armed people, the director general must “immediately ensure the discretion of weapons in the event of an inspection. It’s a major irritant” for farmers, according to M^me Genevard. There will, moreover, be a “gradual deployment on an experimental basis (…) of wearing a pedestrian camera”.

This announcement comes as the board of directors of the OFB asked the government to reverse the job cuts and limit the reduction in staffing planned in the initial budget for 2025.

Another measure, “a circular to prefects to optimize the training capacities of breeding projects, to shorten deadlines and favor educational controls for recent settlers”. The setting of dates for agricultural work will be done at the local level, and a measure will prevent the same paper from being requested several times by administrations.

These announcements “going in the right direction”greeted the FNSEA and the Young Farmers in a press release. THE “work on simplification is far from complete”however, they estimate, and farmers are waiting “the urgent translation of these announcements so that they have a concrete effect on their daily lives”.