France Unveils More Than €1 Billion for Drought-Stricken Farmers

France’s government said on Friday that it would release more than €1 billion to help farmers cope with severe drought and heat damage, as officials try to prevent a wave of farm failures and keep production going into the next season.

The emergency package was announced by Annie Genevard, the agriculture minister, after a summer marked by repeated heat waves, drought and wildfires. The Agriculture Ministry said the plan has two main goals: to compensate for exceptional losses that have hit farm income and to help farms restart production by easing access to feed, seed, plants and other inputs.

The move comes after a season the ministry described as one of exceptional climate stress for French agriculture. It said the national average temperature in July reached 24.9 degrees Celsius, above the previous highs recorded in 2003 and 1976. According to the ministry, 65% of the country faced unprecedented drought conditions, 95 departments were placed under water restrictions, and 79 of them reached the highest “crisis” level at the peak of the summer. Yield losses averaged 50% in many areas, the ministry said, while forage stocks in many regions fell by more than 50%.

At the center of the package is an estimated €520 million in payouts from France’s national solidarity compensation system, known as ISN. The government said it would speed up payments so affected farms can receive money sooner. For insured farmers, the ceiling for advance ISN payments has already been raised to 80% of the expected compensation amount, up from 70%, in an effort to get cash into farm accounts more quickly.

The plan also sets aside €30 million under the agricultural disaster system for uninsured capital losses affecting plants and animals. The ministry said this includes perennial crops such as vines as well as livestock including cattle, sheep and poultry. Local relief on property taxes for undeveloped agricultural land is expected to account for more than €300 million more.

For the future, France said it had secured a change in Brussels that will extend the reference period used to calculate yield losses from five years to eight years starting with the 2027 campaign. The ministry presented that change as a major reform meant to reflect the repeated nature of climate shocks and improve compensation.

A second part of the package is aimed at restoring production capacity before the next campaign. Genevard said the government would create a €235 million farm recovery fund, managed by regional and departmental prefects, to support operations facing the most serious difficulties in mainland France and in the French Caribbean. The money is meant to finance key inputs such as animal feed, forage, seeds, plants and other supplies. The fund also includes a wildfire component for farms damaged by this summer’s fires.

The government said national efforts to move forage between regions would continue, and France would also work with European partners to secure additional supplies if needed for the most exposed livestock operations.

Other measures in the package are meant to ease immediate financial pressure. The ministry said support for farmers’ social security contributions would be reinforced by €20 million for the fall campaign through the Mutualité Sociale Agricole, the farm social insurance body. Individual payment schedules will also be offered to farms in the greatest difficulty so they can delay social contribution payments. Genevard’s ministry also said social and psychological support for distressed farmers would be expanded.

The package extends several existing support programs tied to higher production costs and drought-related delays. An exceptional aid window for purchases of nitrogen fertilizer will remain open through Dec. 31, 2026, for a total of €145 million, including €38 million in national funding, to account for sowing delays linked to drought. Exceptional support for agricultural diesel, at 15 cents per liter, will be extended through October 2026 for a total cost of €106 million to help finance autumn field work.

The ministry also said it would loosen some administrative constraints that have become difficult to meet in an extreme climate year. Genevard asked for faster rollout of a single-inspection system to reduce repeated checks on farms. Prefects will also be allowed to grant certain derogations under national and European rules when local conditions justify it, including on soil cover requirements.

The announcement adds to measures already introduced in June and July, including earlier use of fallow land, higher advance rates under the national solidarity system and the European Union’s farm policy, derogations on cover crop rules, extra animal burial capacity where needed, and loans for livestock ventilation systems. It also comes alongside longer-term climate adaptation programs the ministry said had been revived or strengthened this year, including support for Mediterranean agriculture, orchard renovation and varietal innovation, agricultural water infrastructure and other resilience efforts.

In a statement released by the ministry, Genevard said the drought threatens France’s agricultural sovereignty in two ways: by damaging farm cash flow and by reducing the ability to plant and produce for the 2027 campaign, especially on top of difficulties tied to fuel and fertilizer. She said the plan was designed both to compensate exceptional losses and to prepare a restart in production.

For the wine sector, the package may prove especially important because vines are specifically included among the perennial crops eligible for some relief. That could help wine growers manage cash flow after drought damage and protect vineyard continuity ahead of the next production cycle. More broadly, support for seeds, plants and other inputs may also matter for beverage supply chains that depend on French farm output, even if the full effect will depend on how losses are assessed locally and how quickly aid reaches producers.

To carry out the plan, the ministry said each department has had a drought response unit in place since July, bringing together state services, farm chambers, professional groups, the farm social insurance system, banks and other partners. Those units will remain active. A national unit dedicated to deploying the aid plan has also been created to coordinate with the local teams led by prefects.