fewer and increasingly older farmers

After a blank year (due to the pandemic due to the coronavirus), the doors of the International Agricultural Show will open again, Saturday February 26, Porte de Versailles, in Paris. The visitors, whom the organizers hope will be numerous for this 58and edition, qualified as“reunion edition”, will discover as usual calves, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, not to mention dogs and cats, as they stroll through the aisles. But no beautiful hens. Confined since November 2021, due to the avian flu epidemic, they have not obtained a health pass. Onlookers will not fail to also cross paths with women and politicians, coming to campaign in the “largest farm in France”.

Read also Article reserved for our subscribers France has lost another 100,000 farmers in ten years

Many farmers also go to Porte de Versailles to find their peers. Following the example of Guillaume Roué, even if he is no longer a pig breeder. A year ago, the former president of the pork interprofession asserted his rights to retirement at 65. The Breton who owned, with his wife, a farm of 600 sows and 130 hectares in Dirinon, in Finistère, sought a transfer solution. The family transmission not being envisaged, Mr. Roué turned to his neighbors. Finally, two pig breeders from Finistère agreed to buy the farm in equal shares, while maintaining the team of employees, including the director in place. An example illustrating the inexorable evolution of French agriculture. A declining number of farmers, farms whose surface area is increasing, corporate forms that are developing in line with the size of farms.

The “farm France” continues to depopulate. The findings of the ten-year agricultural census are clear. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of farms fell by 21%, from 490,000 to 389,000, according to data published in December 2021 by the Ministry of Agriculture. Thus, nearly 100,000 farms have been wiped off the map in metropolitan France. However, the ministry points out that this dynamic, which began in the 1970s, is less strong than in the previous decade. The rate of these disappearances has increased from 3% to 2.3% per year. The total area of ​​cultivated agricultural land has remained almost stable. Logically, the size of farms is therefore increasing, with an average of 69 hectares.

Livestock, the most affected

Beyond this first observation, the exercise of the agricultural census highlights the dominant trends. Livestock is the most affected by this strong attrition. The number of farms specializing in the production of milk or meat plunged by 31%. Field crop producers (cereals, oilseeds, beets, potatoes, etc.), fruit growers and wine growers have now become the majority on the national territory. Today, France is therefore first and foremost a land of arable crops, with 112,000 specialized farms. Then comes viticulture, with 59,000 operators. Beef producers (48,000), for their part, come in third place.

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