The administrative justice of Dijon retrieves the municipalities of the high coasts of Beaune in “disadvantaged areas”
On September 21, the Dijon administrative court reinstated about fifteen municipalities on the high coasts of Beaune. Municipalities which were classified as “disadvantaged areas” like mountain areas. But for two years a new zoning had come into force and farmers no longer received the Compensatory Allowance for Natural Handicaps (ICHN).
The appeal filed by the Confédération Paysanne de Côte-d’Or has therefore borne fruit. Thomas Maurice, one of the directors of the union. “We have been strongly mobilized for two years in particular with the local elected officials so it is rather a satisfaction because the judges decided to reintegrate these most important communes by the biophysical constraints, communes very carried on the breeding”.
The Ministry of Agriculture had decided on this new zoning taking into account the average income of farmers present on site. Putting winegrowers and breeders in the same bag, which distorted the decisions taken in 2019. Thomas Maurice knows what he is talking about this goat breeder is based in a hamlet of Aubaine at an altitude of 600 meters.
He raises around 40 goats and produces organic cheeses on 25 ha of very poor soils. Recovering these aids will do him good. “I benefit from a very low ICHN of a few thousand euros but this help is very important in the economic balance of the farm”.
These aids sometimes represent the equivalent of agricultural income for the year.
For some breeders at the head of herds of suckler cows, this aid, which can reach 10,000 euros, is really crucial: they sometimes represent the equivalent of agricultural income for the year! But the return of this ICHN should also make it possible to attract new farmers with installation aid which will again be increased.
Laurette Vugier has set up an aromatic plant workshop in Aubaine. Partner in Gaec on the farm of Thomas Maurice, she hopes the retroactivity of this ICHN, for her it is “a blow” to 5,000 euros! “Normally this should allow me to better install my activity on Gaec, we have construction projects that could be financed thanks to this”.
Municipalities left on the sidelines
But the problem is that not all the municipalities have been reintegrated into this zoning. A few kilometers away in Fussey for example, Nicolas Regala raises 250 ewes. He produces meat which he supplies to his customers by direct sale or through a cooperative. Its operation is among the fifteen municipalities which remain deprived of this financial aid. “We are not part of the municipalities that are put back in because a priori there are a lot of vines in our villages. However, I am not a winegrower, I am a breeder of sheep and on our limestone plateaus apart from our animals. sur could not set up other activities. It’s not fair, it’s not fair “breathes the bittersweet breeder.
If the Confédération Paysanne plans to lodge an appeal with administrative justice, the Ministry of Agriculture – it – can also appeal in the coming weeks. The victory is therefore partial for the agricultural union.
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