French agricultural calamities scheme

The agricultural calamities scheme is the French public program that, until December 31, 2022, compensated uninsurable farm losses caused by a weather event of abnormal intensity. It was created by the law of July 10, 1964, with a national guarantee fund for agricultural calamities. The 2010 farm modernization law turned it into the FNGRA, the national fund for agricultural risk management, which also finances premium subsidies and mutual funds. Everything starts with a declaration. The national committee (CNGRA) issues an opinion, then an order defines the affected municipalities and crops. The farmer had to have lost at least 30% of a crop's production, and those losses had to exceed 13% of the farm's theoretical gross output. The farmer also had to show fire insurance on the farm buildings. The payout typically covered on the order of 25% to 35% of the damage, assessed on a departmental scale, and often arrived more than a year later. Funding combined an additional levy on farm insurance premiums (buildings, livestock mortality, some vehicles), cut from 11% to 5.5% for 2016, and a state contribution. The sticking point for the market was a simple rule: once a crop became insurable, it left the scheme. Field crops and vineyards left it in the early 2010s, which explains the ad hoc aid of 2021. The law of March 2, 2022 replaced it, as of January 1, 2023, with national solidarity compensation (see the 2023 crop insurance reform). Not to be confused with the CatNat regime, which covers insured property, not crops.