Hot July/August give farmers' woes

HOTTER than average weather is being predicted for the rest of the summer. The forecast, by Météo France, will be a further blow to farmers struggling due to the driest spring for 50 years.

Rain in June benefited crops, but was not enough the replenish groundwater, leaving the situation precarious, with water restrictions in 58 departments. President Sarkozy has promised a billion euros of aid to farmers.

He said the measures would include a year’s delay on repayment of loans made to livestock farmers in a 2009 aid package, with the government paying the interest, farmers in difficulty to be exempted from local tax on unbuilt land and aid payments to be made, starting in September, from an agricultural disasters fund. President of farmers’ union Fnsea, Xavier Beulin, said the government had shown “awareness of the situation”.

About a million tonnes of straw was due to be delivered from cereal growing regions to worst-hit livestock farmers in Pays de la Loire, Poitou-Charentes and Auvergne.