As agro-economists, when we prepare our budget estimates we obviously leave a bit of room to manoeuvre. Otherwise, we would not recommend this or that project or business plan. As regards what Benoît mentioned earlier, over the past few years, there have been times when we have made projections and then all of a sudden, the whole picture would change drastically.
Putting our signature down and making recommendations as agronomists is a huge responsibility. There is a reason why we are covered by a liability insurance. The fact is that the changes that have occurred in recent years have led us to be very cautious in our recommendations. The same is true for access to credit. People who assess the situation and issue recommendations are cautious, even very cautious. Their employer demands that they be. When there is a policy change on a very short term, people involved in the whole process of providing consulting services and credit become much more prudent. In my opinion, this hampers investments that could be made in the agricultural sector.