On the one hand, agriculture is questioned by public opinion for its environmental impact, and on the other, it is the first victim of climate change. In the face of uncertainty, farmers will have to be trained to be agile; they will have to choose and train profiles that are constantly learning. Because the vagaries of the soil and climate will force them to constantly re-examine their production choices.
After a doctoral thesis in management science and management on sustainable development strategies at the University of Jean Moulin/Lyon III, Bertrand Valiorgue became a teacher-researcher at the University of Clermont Auvergne in 2008. It was there that he co-founded the Alter-Governance chair and got his foot in the door of the agricultural world through his research on the governance of agricultural cooperatives. He quickly became interested in the coming climate challenge because "it is at the farm level that everything will happen". He decided to explore the agricultural world confronted with the new climate regime. How should agriculture think about this changeover to the new geological era of the Anthropocene? He develops his thoughts on this fascinating subject in a book published in 2020 by Editions du Bord de l'Eau: "Refonder l'agriculture à l'heure de l'Anthropocène". A researcher in corporate strategy and governance looks at the future of agriculture.
On the one hand, agriculture is questioned by public opinion for its environmental impact, and on the other, it is the first victim of climate change. The shift to the "Anthropocene" - a term that designates the geological era marked by the influence of man on the earth's ecosystem - makes it more fragile. The Anthropocene is characterised by rising temperatures, reduced water resources, more light, impoverished biodiversity and weakened soils. It is a profound and lasting transformation of the Earth system. Add to this the fact that at the same time the very existence of the agricultural world is being challenged by cell food, which proposes to replace livestock farming outright. Today, for the agricultural world, the status quo is impossible. Agriculture must reinvent itself to do its part in the fight against global warming and to adapt to the new climate regime.
Regenerative agriculture methods, which consist of limiting ploughing and maximising plant cover, are the most likely to capture CO2 and thus help slow down global warming, or even repair the Earth system. Agriculture must play its part and can even help to repair it, because storing CO2 in the soil is a powerful lever.
Secondly, farmers will have to reinvent their profession because the Anthropocene is changing the conditions of their activity. This new era brings new risks: extreme weather events, droughts, frost, heavy rainfall, new diseases such as the beet aphid. Under these conditions, the farmer will be faced with radically increased uncertainty. Which variety to choose for wheat if temperatures become unpredictable? Should I pull up the vines and replace them with more resistant ones? In the face of this spring's early budding followed by a destructive frost, should I choose later apple trees? Farmers will have no choice but to adopt adaptive strategies and solutions in the face of the new climatic regime that is taking hold in France.
It is essential for training to keep pace. In the face of uncertainty, farmers must be trained to be agile; they must choose and train profiles that are constantly learning. Because the vagaries of the soil and climate will force them to constantly re-examine their production choices. A farmer will no longer be able to rely on the past to reproduce and optimise the model on which his farm operates. This implies drawing plant and animal production choices from the diversity of living organisms in order to find opportunities. Since the second agricultural revolution, we have tended to concentrate our animal and plant production on a handful of species and varieties, whereas the diversity of living organisms is immense. We will therefore rediscover new species. This is essential to be resilient. For example, in the Puy-de-Dôme, we are starting to grow legumes, which is new. This implies a very strong relationship with knowledge. So a great deal of curiosity. In this respect, I think that training should encourage collaborative methods of knowledge acquisition, based on exchange. And that these curiosity reflexes continue after the training through exchanges between farmers, on a bioregional scale.
"Since the second agricultural revolution, there has been a tendency to concentrate our animal and plant production on a handful of species and varieties, whereas the diversity of life is immense.
I would tell him that food is going to become a major issue with climate change and that the French are very attached to their farmers. So this profession has a future. I would also tell him that he should be curious. Finally, I would advise him to evaluate the climatic trajectory of his place of installation in order to choose the appropriate productions and find the opportunities that this land can offer. In other words, he must be a strategist.
For more information: https://www.bertrand-valiorgue.com/
