“The only thing that made sense was to settle down as a farmer,” says Emeric Duclaux, 28. The young farmer is one of the profiles highlighted Lands of Linksan association that helps young farmers set up in business, in the report it publishes this Tuesday on the state of agricultural land in France. Emeric Duclaux specifies “peasant” to better emphasize the need in his eyes, “to turn away from agro-industry and engage in organic production on farms on a human scale”. With this project firmly in mind, he embarked on studies in agronomy and, at the same time, began looking for land.
Of the two adventures, it is the latter which will prove to be the most complex. After looking around his home, talking about his project to friends of friends, Emeric Duclaux broadens his search to the scale of Ain, his department. “I planted small signs with my number and a few lines about my project and I also consulted all the Internet ads,” he says.
7,000 more new farmers to be found per year…
But white cabbage every time. “It’s not that there weren’t any offers, but they didn’t meet my expectations, often because they were huge farms and required an astronomical budget to install,” says Emeric. Another obstacle: the young farmer is a “Nima” as the candidates for the installation are qualified “non-agricultural background”. “It is more difficult, then, to make contact with farmers likely to give up land,” he notes. Emeric Duclaux does not give up on anything. He buys a motorhome and goes to visit lands all over France, before finally finding his happiness in Haute-Loire where he took over, since January 2021, a small farm specializing in organic red fruits. Three hours from where he grew up.
An obstacle course which is surprising, while French agriculture is facing the challenge of the colossal generational renewal. One in two farmers will reach retirement age in the next five to ten years. “And if the number of farmer installations remains stable [15.000]there are still 7,000 missing per year to compensate for these departures, ”explained Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agriculture, on December 10, revealing the figures from the last agricultural census.
“We settle where we can”
However, Emeric Duclaux assures him: “other friends have had the same difficulties as mine”. “20,000 young people come to the “Installation reception point” (the gateway for all agricultural project leaders) for 15,000 installations,” says Coline Sovran, advocacy officer at Terres de Liens. Or 5,000 who remain on the floor? “In the lot, some give up realizing that they are not made for this profession”, concedes Coline Sovran. But many are also throwing in the towel for lack of finding land, according to Terres de lien, which is sounding the alarm in its report published on Tuesday.
The figures unveiled in December by Julien Denormandie only confirmed this long and slow disappearance of farmers in France observed for several decades, recalls Maurice Desrier, economist and agricultural statistician, member of the board of Terres de liens. “Between 2010 and 2020 alone, France lost 100,000 farms to only have 390,000 today,” he explains. Another trend: the expansion of farms. “The average area they farm is now 69 ha, or 26 more than in 2010,” continues Maurice Desrier. As for large farms, with an average area of 136 ha (190 football pitches), almost non-existent 60 years ago, they now represent one in five farms and cover 40% of metropolitan agricultural territory, indicates Terres de Liens . The NGO then points to the consequences of such a concentration in its eyes: “reduction of agricultural employment, destruction of family labor, industrialization of production, recourse to subcontracting, malaise of farmers…”
A growing mismatch between farms to be sold and new projects?
This expansion of land is also and above all one of the brakes on the renewal of generations in agriculture. First obstacle: “an increasingly marked mismatch between the farms to be sold and the installation projects, observes Coline Sevran. The former are getting bigger, more specialized and mechanized when the new generations of farmers are more attentive to social and environmental expectations. A growing share is turning to smaller areas, organically with short-circuit sales…”
The second obstacle, which stems in part from the first, is the cost of installation. “Even if the increase was more contained than elsewhere in Europe, the price of land has on average doubled in twenty years, continues the advocacy officer of Terres de liens. However, while the installation surface is 35 ha on average today, it is then necessary to support the equivalent of 200,000 euros of investment for the purchase of land alone, to which are often added investments to be made which can double the cost of installation. »
Not easy then to deal with farm expansion projects, Pointe Terres des Liens. “If a farmer wants to sell his land quickly, the easiest way is to sell it to a neighbor who is already there, because in many cases he is able to mobilize capital more quickly,” summarizes Coline Sovran. However, in France, the agricultural land market is regulated and controlled by the Land development and rural settlement companies (Safer) with the mission of supervising the acquisition of agricultural land and encouraging the installation of young people. “But this device, which dates from the 1960s, has aged and has many holes in the racket today, believes Tanguy Martin, also in charge of advocacy at Terres de Liens. Many transactions today escape Safer. »
The urgency of a major law on agricultural land for Terres de liens
This is another strong figure from the association’s report: two thirds of the land now freed up is used to expand existing farms. “The question now is whether we continue in this direction”, launches Benjamin Duriez who recalls that we are today at a crossroads. With the massive retirements expected, “five million hectares of land, or nearly 20% of thea French agricultural area, will change hands by 2030”, expects Terres de Liens. The challenge is not only to prevent these lands from being expanded. The association also cites among the threats the artificialization of the soil (see box), or the irruption of giant agri-food firms which invest in agricultural land [lire l’enquête du Monde Diplomatique].
For Terres de Liens, there is an urgent need to adopt, in France, a major law on agricultural land which, at the same time, “would strengthen the preservation of agricultural land, promote the installation of new farmers, but also ensure a more democratic and transparent governance of agricultural land”, details the association. “Such a law was promised several times by Emmanuel Macron during this five-year term before being postponed each time, deplores Tanguy Martin. For Terres de Liens, the stakes are too high to wait another five years.