This article makes the Confédération Paysanne de la Vienne react and demonstrates once again that it is necessary to completely review the allocation of irrigation volumes to allow for more equitable access to water resources,
The protocol which aims to validate the public funding of 30 basins in the Clain basin only confirms the confiscation of part of the water resource without taking into account the priority of use.
With or without basins, the water resource is limited and will be increasingly limited in view of climate change. We must therefore prioritize the volumes of water available to crops with high added value, which are needed locally. Horticulture and arboriculture, which represent small areas in our department, are obviously part of the priority crops.
However today – and tomorrow with possible basins -, the volumes of water are distributed among the sprinklers by a historical reference that dates back to 2003. The more you watered in 2003, the greater your volume and the more you are entitled to a large basin and not it matters what cultures you put into place. For sprinklers not connected to basins, the volumes are rarely fully usable because they are subject to prefectural decrees which limit or suspend irrigation in periods of drought.
Mr. Poirier erred in stating that building reservoirs will free up volumes of water for new farmers. As their name indicates, replacement reserves only allow you to replace spring and summer drawings with winter drawings. There is no alternative but to share and distribute existing volumes between farmers and project promoters.
For the sector concerned, the Auxances basin, there would be 20,000 m3 of volumes available for horticulture, while SAFER has just transferred a farm of 2121 hectares with a historical reference close to 1 million m³. Enough to water 500 hectares of horticulture!
Naturally, only cereals, oilseeds and crops destined for methanisation are grown on this gigantic farm.
The Confédération Paysanne is very much in favor of involving local authorities in the development of horticulture on the outskirts of cities.
This must be done without the intervention of the Green Belt Start-up which presents itself as a facilitator while it comes to undermining the social status of future farmers. The volumes of water should be allocated directly to future horticulturists and not to the green belt.
Greenbelt has no legitimacy to allocate volumes of water for irrigation, any more than land should be allocated.
Water is a common good, we must share it and preserve it.
Pierre – Jean Clerc, spokesman for the Vienne Farmers’ Confederation
