According to a study by AGRESTE, the statistical service of the Regional Direction of Agriculture in La Reunion Island, more than 42% of Reunion farmers lived below the poverty line in 2020. Here is the introduction to the study presented under the title “A poverty monetary income of agricultural households more important in La Reunion", dated July 16

“The information on agricultural operations listed during the 2020 agricultural census has been enriched with tax and social data. The disposable income of agricultural households comes 31% from agricultural profits and 46% from other activity income. The monetary poverty rate in La Reunion stands at 42.7% compared to only 16.2% in all agricultural households in Hexagone (France - Editor’s note). This situation varies greatly depending on the composition of the household: 62.1% of people live below the poverty line when the farmer is alone compared to 41.8% when at least one person is a non-farmer. The standard of living increases with the economic size of the farm: limited to 17,000 euros in micro-farms, it can reach 62,800 euros in large ones. The situations vary greatly depending on the technical and economic orientation of the operation. The standard of living of cane workers and market gardeners, who represent nearly 60% of households, is lower than the average of agricultural households on the island."

In this study, it is notably indicated:

“Earned income excluding agricultural profits is thus the main source of income for agricultural households in La Reunion (…) where it represents 45% of disposable income.”

“Within La Reunion agricultural households, half of the people have a standard of living below 15,100 euros in 2020.”

Despite the aid

Farmers have the responsibility to feed the population. But they earn so little income from their activity that the income of a farming family is provided mainly by the salary of the spouse who is not a farmer.
In La Reunion, the latest assessment of the percentage of Reunionese living below the poverty line is 38%. The study by the AGRESTE service of the DAAF estimates this percentage at more than 42%. It also indicates that 60% of sugar cane and market gardening farms have a standard of living below average, even though they constitute the main pillar of our agriculture.
It should also be noted, this is not included in the study, that agricultural income is largely made up of public aid. They are the majority among sugar cane planters. It is the State which has taken charge of the increase in production costs, not Tereos, the only customer of the planters, which has benefited from a sugar cane price which has remained virtually unchanged for at least 30 years.

Poor despite work

All these elements remind us of the scale of the crisis in La Reunion. One of its main characteristics is poverty. Unemployment is not the only cause. The DAAF study only concerns business leaders in agriculture. These company leaders have a higher poverty rate than the general population, and they are not unemployed.
Agriculture is a strategic sector in La Reunion. It is this sector that feeds the population. It also allows our island to have on its territory a green gold, sugar cane. This plant is the source of hundreds of industrializable products. Its roots also protect the population from landslides, as they hold the earth in the many mountainous areas of our island.
This low income explains the decline in the area of ​​sugar cane plantations, explained another DAAF study, putting the decline at almost 10% in 4 years. This results in a harvest forecast of 1.4 million tonnes of sugar cane compared to 1.7 million on average usually, and far from the more than 2 million tonnes which were the norm before the planter was dispossessed of ownership of the cane and all its products by the 1969 Agreement.

Agriculture is going to the wall

In La Reunion, the State via SAFER drived an agrarian reform transforming large plantations into microfarms of 5 hectares on average. It was believed that this allowed a farming family to live with dignity. According to the DAAF study, the maximum standard of living there corresponds to the minimum wage. This model is no longer tenable. It forces the farmer’s spouse to look for work outside the farm to maintain their activity.
The result of this study is an additional argument for an overhaul of this sector. Because if nothing changes, the agriculture is going to the wall in La Reunion. Farmers will continue to abandon this activity, and the objective of food sovereignty in Reunion cannot be achieved.
This will have the effect of keeping La Reunion Island increasingly dependent on food imports from Europe. In other words, this will strengthen the domination of neocolonialism over the economy of our country.

M.M.