“Still candidates” for agricultural installation in Indre-et-Loire

“I plan to retire in two years. I came to see how it will go, to find out about the procedures I have to follow. I have already found buyers,” explains Jean-Luc Girault from the La Buissonnière poultry farm in Saint-Branchs. On Friday, September 13, 2024, like about twenty other transferors and forty project leaders, he was registered for the Installation and Transmission forum which took place at the Cassiopée hall in Veigné.

For four years, the Indre-et-Loire Chamber of Agriculture has been organizing this forum so that project leaders wishing to set up and farmers wishing to retire can have all the necessary information to properly prepare their steps.

“There, they really come for an initial information gathering which is free. People, in general, come to discuss, to see if it is feasible or not, explains Julie Hot, technical advisor at the Chamber of Agriculture and organizer of the event. For us, it’s a bit like the event of the year, where we showcase our skills and our advice, to benefit our public of farmers.”

“It’s getting more and more complicated”

According to the results of the agricultural census carried out in 2020, a quarter of Tours farms have disappeared over the last decade.

“Frankly, we don’t know the future of agriculture, but it’s not rosy at the moment. I don’t know if they’re going to get through this, because we’re realizing that it’s getting more and more complicated,” notes Annie Lurton, from the Lurton Prévault farm (growing cereals, legumes, oilseeds and raising goats) in Ports-sur-Vienne, who has been preparing for retirement for “some time”. “This year’s results were negative. We’re around -25%. We do several jobs. It’s a business like any other. We spend more and more time on administration.”

“The margins are very tight, my buyers will perhaps stop the poultry business, adds Jean-Luc Girault. We don’t have enough margin to live on. I’m not the only one saying that. The problem we’re going to face today is that there are people who are going to want to quit and they’re not going to find anyone. No one is going to want to get involved. It’s very risky.”

“There are really people who want to come back to the land”

However, the Chamber of Agriculture notes that there is “really people who want to come back to the land and who are motivated to settle down”. “And then when they settle down, it’s for a few years. You can’t improvise as a farmer in such a simple way, says Laurence Bouju-Becherel, head of department, business management and development at the Chamber of Agriculture. We always have candidates.” And this despite the crisis that the sector has been experiencing since the beginning of the year.

“I am 100% motivated”says Fabrice Chauveau, 46, soon to be a farmer. An artisan butcher and delicatessen owner, he wants to start his career in market gardening. “I think we need to think about how to produce. It’s our food that’s at stake. Whatever happens, we have to continue to produce vegetables. I think we have to be ingenious sometimes to deal with climatic hazards. I don’t know how it’s going to play out. But don’t be discouraged, it’s clear that it’s not.”