Attracting future agricultural entrepreneurs is a challenge for the future. The sector is struggling to recruit, even though 70,000 jobs are to be filled each year. All profiles are concerned. Decoding and solutions with four players in the sector before the opening of the Salon de l'Agriculture (26 February-6 March)
Francis Nappez - Managing Director Hectar
Sustaining the facility and jobs
Hectar runs two main training courses, not including those with our partners. Firstly, Hectar Entrepreneurs, which exists in two formats: five weeks, on the eve of setting up, or six months at the start of the project. The aim is to find, with the candidates, the economic and agronomic equation to consolidate their project and enable them to start up. The real issue is the sustainability of the installation, which depends on a good evaluation of the impact of the choices that the entrepreneurs will make. This is all the more important in the case of a professional reconversion. Hectar also offers "agricultural employee" training because farms are short of workers and it is necessary to perpetuate these jobs that cannot be relocated. It is a question of both properly training employees and making employers aware of a satisfactory working environment.
Mélissa Bergès - Head of partnerships École 42
Combining data and agriculture
"The AI Agritech programme is being developed by École 42 and Hectar since September 2021. Our students are trying to create predictive models from data. For example, those transmitted by the cows' collars in order to determine the right moment of intervention for the farmer. It's about making life easier for farmers in general. We are launching a new project with PopFarm, a start-up that manufactures container gardens where fruit, vegetables and herbs are grown. The aim is to recognise the maturity of the produce inside the cupboards. Data, technology and agriculture are made to marry. Our students are very interested in all these subjects.
The Sauternes properties are partners in the Hectar Sauternes project
Making jobs more attractive
Winegrowing is constantly working to improve the working conditions of the industry's manual trades. Winegrowers, vineyard workers, tractor operators... these jobs have evolved for the safety of the employee and the efficiency of the work done thanks to electric pruning shears in the vineyard and modern, soundproof tractors, for example. Wine estates offer a wide range of jobs that we must promote. Our objective is to make it known!
Marie-Laure Biscaye - Communication Manager ITK
Helping to make decisions
A farmerisfinding it increasingly difficult to make a living from what he produces, while at the same time responding to societal issues of quality and respect for the environment, in a context of climate change. He does not have all the skills to make daily decisions that have complex effects on his production and income. The web services and applications we offer provide the means to simplify his daily life. Example: the vineyards of the South have not seen rain for months. Although we never irrigate at this time of year, we encourage our winegrowers who can do so to do so, in controlled volumes, otherwise root development, the source of the vine's energy, will be blocked. Our tool allows access to the water status of each plot, the combination between the weather situation and the growth stage of the plant.
