An episode of drought affects the department of Ain and the water table of the southern Dombes is struggling to recharge. Restrictive measures were announced on March 31 by the prefecture, which decided to place the “Dombes Sud” groundwater management basin on heightened alert.
“Straight to the hardest notch,” say the farmers. It is a blow for the profession, which no longer has the right to irrigate between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. In Ain, they do not hide their concerns: “We are in the middle of the planting period, it requires watering as we go,” begins Patrick Thollon, farmer on a family farm in Beynost, taken over in 1996.
This market gardener operates 100 hectares of…
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