Legumes are nitrogen-fixing plants, helping to restore soil health and benefiting our health. However, leguminous crops are grown on less than 1% of arable land, and France imports 50% of its animal feed needs! With this in mind, Romuald decided to take action!
What's your background?
My name is Romuald, I'm 35 years old, and I trained as an agricultural engineer in Lille before moving on to various sales and marketing positions in the food, wine and spirits industries, before setting up as a farmer. As a matter of fact, at the age of 25, I was training as a sales negotiator with major national retail accounts!
In 2020, while I was living in Valence with my partner and son, I had to return to the farm to help out my parents following various health problems on their part. At the end of the summer, the question of the farm's future arose: the equipment was aging, agronomically and technically I felt that we were no longer at the same level as before, and my parents were coming to the end of their careers... For my part, I wasn't as passionate about my job as a salesman as I used to be, and I wasn't averse to a new challenge. I got in touch with two neighboring farmers, both of whom had field crop farms, and one of them, Gaël, suggested that we do the harvest together the following summer, in 2021, as a test for future collaboration. As this first test went well, we decided to continue together, subject to formalizing and structuring our collaboration by creating a CUMA. In 1 year, I went from a situation where I didn't really know what to do agronomically: ploughing or not, renewing equipment, choice of inputs, a more low-tech and open source approach to Soil Conservation Agriculture. I loved this challenging aspect of my installation! There's a lot of talk at the moment about the transition of farms, but there's still a long way to go, particularly in terms of the environmental dimension. From 2021 to 2022, I lived between the Drôme and the Marne, before officially setting up on March 1, 2023.
How have you used your previous experience as a farmer?
With my background in marketing and sales, we've been able to set up a mutual aid system within the CUMA, with a field-to-plate approach. Everyone can carry out tasks according to their skills: I've created a website and organized a tasting reception on my colleague's farm, he helps me with agronomy, we have an employee thanks to the employer group we've set up, who is more specialized in mechanics... Farming is such a varied profession, you can't do everything well, so it's important to be able to make the most of your strengths as part of a team. Mechanics aren't my field at all, so I'm happy if I can delegate them! On the other hand, I'm going to have an appetite for sales, marketing, communication, administration... For example, we were able to apply for a European partnership for innovation, to promote our work in agroecology and low-carbon production. We are in the midst of reflection and ongoing training on the knowledge and tools we need to develop our plant cover, our macerations and decoctions to stimulate our crops, and to extend our crop rotation, in particular by introducing legumes... This project led me to run awareness-raising campaigns with children and secondary school students, and I was actively involved in a workshop with secondary school cooks to show them the benefits of plant proteins... With our new legume production, I was able to work on a marketing brief and the launch of a brand, as well as responding to calls for tender. My fulfillment is balanced between work in the fields, during harvesting and sowing for example, but I also need to get back to my training and to long-term projects, particularly strategic ones, to think about what the farm will be like in 1, 5 or 10 years' time...
As far as agroecology is concerned, I'm constantly learning, and just next week I'm taking a course on the impact of legumes. Agroecology also has a very "open source" aspect: my colleague is a bit like my mentor on these subjects. As far as I'm concerned, it's the strength of the collective that enabled me to go down this path.
Why have you chosen to grow legumes?
In fact, we produce faba beans, peas and vetches for livestock feed and for our own seed and cover crops. A few years ago, we also reintroduced lentils for human consumption.
Legumes are one of the pillars of our agro-ecological transition. It contributes to the lengthening of our rotations, i.e. growing more varietal species on the same plot of land over the years. Thanks to their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, legumes boost soil fertility at crop and rotation level, and reduce the need for mineral nitrogen fertilization. Introducing legumes into our crop rotation helps reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and improves our carbon footprint. Last but not least, home-grown pulses contribute to our food sovereignty in terms of plant proteins, whether for human or animal consumption.
Having said that, the difficulty with legumes, and lentils in particular, is the vagaries of yield. While they are good for the climate, they are also very sensitive to it during cultivation. If I make 500 kg per hectare, I won't be able to make ends meet; if I make 15 quintals, I'll break even; if I make 25 quintals, I can make a margin and invest. For young farmers like me, it's a challenge to take up, because I'm a great believer in the benefits of this crop, but it remains a strategic issue.
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