Following the fires in Aude, Minister Annie Genevard releases an emergency fund of 8 million euros for affected farmers

Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard, visiting the Aude region after the fires, announced that the government would release an emergency fund of €8 million to affected farmers and winegrowers. This announcement came after a meeting that began at midday, which focused on these "emergency measures" but also on "sustainable solutions to rebuild and strengthen the resilience of affected farms," the Ministry of Agriculture announced.

In this Corbières region, "scarred" by the gigantic fire that destroyed 16,000 hectares between August 5 and 10, the minister "wanted to bring to the entire agricultural world (...) the expression of national solidarity with an emergency fund of 8 million euros, which will be used to compensate for both crop losses, loss of funds, when the vineyard, for example, is destroyed, and the destruction of buildings and agricultural equipment," she declared to the press in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, a wine-growing village devastated by the fire.

"We hope that the budget will be substantial (...) Legally, the fire is neither a natural disaster nor an agricultural calamity, so national solidarity must play its role," said Ludovic Roux, president of the Aude chamber of agriculture, earlier in the morning.

On Thursday morning, the minister met with affected winegrowers and elected officials, to whom she expressed "national solidarity" with the Corbières region. On the edge of the wine-growing village of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, one of the worst hit by the fire, partially burned vines stretch along the foot of the ash-covered hill.

"This trauma (...) has a profound impact on the population, the farmers, but beyond that on the whole country," the minister told elected officials and winegrowers, "because the meaning of the Prime Minister's visit [on August 6] , as well as my visit, is also the expression of national solidarity with your region."

Already overwhelmed by climatic and economic hazards, the winegrowers of Corbières, devastated by this "catastrophe of unprecedented scale" , in the words of François Bayrou during his visit at the start of the fire, were waiting for help from the government.

"In the face of this disaster, we must ask ourselves the right questions and provide appropriate answers" in terms of "crop choices, production, agricultural activity, water supply," the minister explained. She also called for "this area to truly become a place of expertise."

According to the minister, we need "feedback to know where it burned, what burned, why in certain places it didn't burn, so that we can truly think about the future." Winegrowers highlight the essential role played by the ever-present vines as firebreaks, which limit or stop the spread of fires.