“We finished sowing beetroot at the beginning of May, almost a month late. We still have corn left. But yesterday I got stuck with the tractor,” says Nicolas Galpin, a farmer in Auvernaux, in Essonne, forced to juggle, this spring, with repeated episodes of rain which disrupt the work of the fields.
He does not remember having experienced such a situation since he settled with his wife on the family farm in 2002. An installation which took place in two stages, since his father did not completely let go of the reins until 2011, when he retired. The handover took place without any expansion on this farm, which already had 218 hectares when Mr. Galpin’s grandfather was the farmer. It then belonged to a wallpaper manufacturer. When his descendants sold it, Mr. Galpin bought the buildings, his father half of the land. The other half of the space is rented to different owners.
“Apart from the highway which crossed the plots in the 1960s and a subdivision which took up one hectare, the farm has not changed. Its size was atypical for the time. underlines the producer. But if the outlines have persisted, the agricultural exploitation has been profoundly reworked with the change of generation. The cereal grower has chosen to stop plowing the land to cultivate beet, wheat or barley. A way to preserve soil and avoid erosion. This strategy, however, leads to a dependence on glyphosate, a controversial herbicide, used to weed fields between two crops.
Low carbon label
Mr. Galpin also broadened the range of productions. He first introduced rapeseed and intercrops, then, seven years ago, legumes such as quinoa or lentils and, three years later, corn. He also raises sixty sheep and produces honey.
An agronomic model which has earned it the opportunity to be selected by its cereal cooperative Axéréal to obtain the low carbon label in 2022. “I have become a carbon sequester, because I store more than I emit. That is the equivalent of 150 tonnes of CO₂ in 2022 and 106 tonnes in 2023. I therefore receive between 2,500 and 3,000 euros per year,” he explains. In return, he will have to pay 800 euros for the next annual audit, financed for the first two years by the cooperative. The low carbon label also allows it to better promote its malting barley by obtaining 25 euros more per tonne. Added to this, for his practices, is a bonus of 1,500 euros per year, paid by the Cristal Union sugar cooperative, to which he delivers his beets.
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