For several weeks, sunflower oil shelves in supermarkets have often been empty, with consumers anticipating a possible shortage due to the war in Ukraine, one of the world’s largest producers of sunflower. If French farmers have decided to reorient their production towards this crop, it is also because sunflower, and oilseeds in general, are the basis of animal feed. And that the price of these resources has soared lately, just like the price of fertilizers or energy.
“We talk a lot about cereals, but this is not the first emergency. If we take Russia and Ukraine, it’s 30% of wheat production, but 80% of oilcake for breeding. This has an impact on the price of feed and our breeders do not need that”, assures Frédéric André, general manager of the Safer Occitaniethe company responsible for protecting agricultural areas and promoting the establishment or maintenance of agricultural operations.
100,000 hectares of fallow land in Occitania
Faced with the risks incurred by France concerning its food sovereignty, this organization decided to mobilize the landowners by offering them to cultivate the land that is currently fallow. “In Occitania, there are around 100,000 hectares of potential wasteland that could be cultivated. They belong to communities, private individuals, river syndicates. They are sometimes neglected because they are next to a road project or because their owners are afraid to commit to a lease with a farmer,” explains his manager.
To encourage as many people as possible to grow rapeseed, soy or even peas on their plots, Safer offers to take care of everything, or almost, thanks to the provision agreement. It allows the owner to sign a kind of precarious lease which can range from one year to 12 years and it is the company that is in contact with the land user. Safer already manages 43,000 hectares in the region with 3,500 farmers through 1,800 agreements.
“We can always find farmers, the difficulty will be rather the state of the ground, because before sowing by the end of May, the soil must be prepared. Some must be prepared for at least a year or two to have an interesting return. And we are ready to participate in the costs of recultivation. For the owners, it’s a way to participate in the solidarity effort for our food security,” argues Frédéric André. If his teams have already identified private land in the suburbs of Montpellier that could do the trick, he has already received phone calls from communities with fallow land and ready to take the leap.
If Safer has developed this device, it is because the region lends itself to it. If in certain parts of the French territory, the smallest plot is exploited, in the thirteen departments that make up Occitanie there are still many hectares available, in particular because of land speculation in the peri-urban area or after the wave of uprooting of vines. these last years.
A long-term change
A reflection on the cultivation on which the regional chamber of agriculture has been working for months, well before the crisis in Ukraine. “A team is working on these questions of diversification, particularly in legumes through the fileg project who is in the process of structuring this sector. This allows us to rethink our major crops and our sources of supply, to relocate”, explains Christel Chevrier, head of the “Plant production” department at the chamber. But this change will not happen overnight.
Because it goes through the cultivation of fallow land or wasteland. And to achieve this, you need fertilizers. But this fall, it will certainly be difficult to get some. Just like seeds. “And to get certain yields, you will need to have access to water. This question arises when at the same time we have to adapt cultures to climate change”, continues Christel Chevrier. While food sovereignty is making a big comeback in the light of the war in Ukraine, agriculture is also forced to deal with the rise in raw materials to have a profitability of its productions but also the long-term challenges of water resource, which some crops need to grow.