The Respite Aid Scheme for Farmers is an initiative that was established as a replacement service to support the continuation of farm activities and provide relief for farmers facing professional exhaustion and burnout. The scheme was initially tested by the French Ministry of Agriculture in 2017, with an initial budget of 4 million euros for the first year. The funds were allocated to the MSA (French Agriculture sector Social Security), which played a key role in administering the aid.
The primary objective of the Respite Aid Scheme was to alleviate the pressure on farmers, particularly animal breeders who needed to work on their farms on a daily basis. Under the scheme, a social assistant will visit the farm and provide a week of respite aid to the farmer in need. In 2018 and 2019, the aid was reduced, and the responsibility for financing the scheme was transferred to the MSA and their local social funds. The local MSA funds were given autonomy in determining the eligibility criteria, duration of aid, and the remaining cost to be paid by the farmer.
The Respite Aid Scheme represents 1% of the replacement motives of the Service de Remplacement, which amounts to 50,000 hours of work or 6,250 days. In 2022, approximately 1,800 farmers participated in the scheme. However, the initiative faces certain limitations, mainly due to the budget constraints of local MSA funds and their social programs. This can lead to restrictive conditions or a high amount of money remaining to be paid by the farmers, discouraging them from applying for this aid.
Moreover, there are additional barriers such as strained relationships between farmers and the MSA, for example, due to unpaid cotisations, as well as the tendency for farmers to keep their mental health struggles private.
The MSA and Service de Remplacement aim to utilize the Respite Aid Scheme as a last resort and instead invest in structural vacations and breaks for farmers to achieve a better work-life balance and a more sustainable profession. Indeed work-life balance is well-applied across the agri-food sector, except for the farmers themselves. The Respite Aid Scheme is considered a complementary measure that should be accompanied by additional support from social assistants and psychologists. It is noteworthy that 90% of the demands received, even from non-members of the replacement service, are met. The Service the Remplacement gives priority to these demands alongside other emergencies such as illnesses or accidents, with the aim of maintaining the farms while their owners are in distress.
The agents who are sent on Respite Schemes are experienced individuals who are prepared to handle difficult situations on the farms they are assigned to.. The objective is to engage voluntary agents for these farm visits. However, the Replacement Service faces challenges in finding suitable candidates due to the lack of interest in agricultural vocations, which impact on hiring opportunities.
The financing of the Respite Aid Scheme is dependent on the MSA, and is primarily financed by farmers themselves. Although some actors in the agri-food chain have financially supported local initiatives for annual leave for farmers, they have not yet extended their support to the Respite Aid Scheme. As of now, there has not been any discussions regarding the establishment of tools like an endowment fund by actors in the agriculture sector, other than farmers, to support the scheme.