When he walked the aisles of the agricultural show last weekend, Marc-Antoine Dumoulin did not go unnoticed. A selfie here, a handshake there, the 26-year-old farmer was able to measure his popularity. “There is even a girl who cried so much she was happy to see me. It’s weird, “still can’t believe the young man. It must be said that “Marco the farmer”, his nickname on social networks, is a real star.
With more than 370,000 subscribers on Tik Tok, he is the most followed French farmer. Amazing for someone who only discovered this social network in October 2020. “It came a bit overnight. During a family meal, my brother-in-law told me to go for a ride on Tik Tok to see funny farmer videos. I watched first until the day I made my first video at a time when I was planting my beets. I put it back the next day and then almost every day. But I never thought I’d attract so many people,” admits Marc-Antoine.
Dusting off the farming profession
Owner of a 200-hectare family farm based in La Neuville Bosmont (Aisne), he cultivates wheat, rapeseed, corn and beets in his fields. And every day, in addition to his work, he devotes at least two hours to his Tik Tok account. With his quirky, passionate or educational videos about his profession, he has conquered a large audience and is helping to dust off and brighten up a farming profession that is too often the victim of clichés.
“A lot of people still see agriculture as it did 40 years ago. Some think that we pollute and that we do anything in our fields. But this is not true. We are a young generation who have been enormously aware of all this. Today, we really pay attention to everything we do. That’s what I want to highlight. I want people to really understand what we are doing,” insists “the farmer”
Inform about the reality of an increasingly complicated profession
And the feedback is very positive. Whether its subscribers or other farmers, the vast majority appreciate this unusual discovery of agriculture. Thanks to this virtual popularity, Marc-Antoine has also become a sort of spokesperson by also telling the reality of an increasingly complicated profession.
“It’s more and more complicated to earn a decent living when you’re a farmer. Some work at a loss because we have huge workloads. Today, the profession of farmer is full of things combined: you have to be an accountant, a financial driver, a mechanic… That’s also why it’s exciting. You learn to manage a lot of things,” explains Marc-Antoine Dumoulin. Including the management of social networks that made him a star of agriculture among young people.