French agriculture minister Stephane LeFoll has outlined the government’s plans to help ease the impacts of plummeting returns for livestock farmers.

Two weeks ago LeFoll promised to secure measures that would increase farmers’ returns. He called in the agriculture ombudsperson to gather evidence from across the supply chain on supply chain relationships and prices being paid to farmers; the watchdog’s initial findings will be published in mid-July.

Last week, following meetings with industry leaders, the minister called on actors across the supply chain to honour their responsibilities and support the French agri-food sector. He warned that France’s pork, beef and dairy industries have been “imperilled by unfavourable economic movements” and that those further up the supply chain should on no account risk further endangering French farming.

Restating the government’s commitment to securing the economic, environmental and social sustainability of the food and farming sector, LeFoll outlined plans to help farming adapt in a report released this week, in which he illustrated examples of four areas in which the French government is intervening to help farmers. These are:

• Lowering taxes paid by businesses by a total of €41bn (£29bn) by 2017, which LeFoll said would benefit the agri-food sector, freeing up hundreds of millions of euros for farmers and agricultural cooperatives, boosting competitiveness and allowing for job creation;
• Including agriculture in the government’s Future Investment Programme (PIA) for the the first time this year, which will see €120m (£86m) going to FranceAgriMer. The organisation’s ‘missions’ include the implementation of government intervention and crisis measures, promoting agricultural products and collecting information for the sector;
• Allowing farmers to claim back part of their investments into agricultural machinery; and
• Making €200m (£143m) of pillar two CAP funding available to farmers each year under a Plan for the Competitiveness and Adaptation of Farms.

The French government also announced this week that, in response to "exceptionally dry" conditions in early summer, authorities have allowed livestock to be grazed on fallow land.

In Europe, MEPs in Strasbourg voted overwhelmingly to endorse a report that calls for the EU Commission to step up measures to help dairy farmers, who are struggling across the continent.

However, in the UK, protest group Farmers for Action has planned a fresh series of meetings to discuss the dairy crisis, with farmers meeting at Market Drayton Livestock Market in Shropshire next Thursday and in Somerset the following week.

The Shropshire meeting will feature speakers from the Tenant Farmers’ Association and NFU. Last year FFA recommenced its campaign of blockades in response to falling dairy prices, targeting processors and supermarkets its members felt were devaluing dairy products.