The organization of French Young Farmers (JA) has asked President Macron and Agriculture Minister Denormandie for more financial support to take over agricultural enterprises.
Following the agricultural census for the year 2020, the youth point to the ongoing depopulation of rural areas, as in many other EU countries. According to the French survey, 58% of farm managers in livestock and agriculture are older than 50 years. Most of them will reach retirement age in the next 5 – 7 years.
Given the aging population, the annual generational turnover of about 20,000 French rural farmers must be supported with proactive policies, JA warned. They suggest a kind of ‘preemption right’ when purchasing farmland. According to the association, more than 20,000 French farmers stop working each year, but in many cases the business is taken over by another agricultural enterprise, preventing young farmers from ‘getting in between’.
Recent figures from Eurostat show that in the EU only 11% of all farms are run by farmers under the age of 40, while 65% of farms are managed by farmers older than 55 years.
Just last week, French Minister Denormandie decided not to ‘force’ farmers to retire at 67. After that age, they would only be eligible for a French pension. If they continued working, they would no longer be eligible for EU CAP funds. However, the French NSP submitted to Brussels indicates that Denormandie leaves the choice to the older farmer: either pension or EU CAP subsidy.
The French agricultural census also shows that the number of farms continues to decline sharply. Between 2010 and 2020, about 100,000 farms disappeared. The number of livestock farms has decreased by 31% (−64,000) since 2010. While the number of people with permanent jobs on farms has decreased by 12% over 10 years (from 759,000 to 583,000 permanent full-time jobs), the share of temporary employees is increasing.
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