To say that they were eagerly awaited is no exaggeration: on Monday, November 18, 2024, seven students began their agricultural technician entrepreneur (TEA) training, market gardening and arboriculture option, at the Rural Family House (MFR) in Saint-Loup-Lamairé . Jérémy Gaiguant and Claude Dutour, director and president of the associative structure which is one of the fifteen MFRs in Poitou (eleven in Deux-Sèvres and four in Vienne), can breathe easy after having postponed the start of the school year for these new learners. “It dragged on because we only had three in September, it was not possible to start”specifies Jérémy Gaiguant, who has recently been in office.
“With climate change, what crops to grow and how to reduce costs”
A push was made on communication at the beginning of autumn to attract people to this TEA market gardening and arboriculture training which extends over ten months, corresponding to a baccalaureate level and which makes it possible to obtain aid for the facility. “They are mainly people in retraining who all have a more or less defined project to manage an agricultural structure or be an employee.welcomes the director. The option meets the needs of the territory. »
“Young people have never heard of these varieties”
The MFRs of Poitou boast of their local roots. In Saint-Loup-Lamairé, where around twenty employees work, this is how a new option will be born at the start of the school year in September 2025, still under the banner of its TEA, on the food autonomy of agricultural operations. It will target both those who, with a baccalaureate in hand, want to take over a farm as well as existing farmers who wish to improve their skills.
Two questions will accompany the sixteen weeks of lessons of the year, with bridges on accounting, the discovery of Cuma (Cooperative for the use of agricultural equipment) and technical outings: “With climate change, what crops to grow, and how to reduce costs and chargessays Jérémy Gaiguant. We want to formalize the thing: many people have food autonomy in their farm but they have often developed it like that. » The ambition is to draw inspiration from what is done, and works, in Gâtine, where the mixed farming and breeding model is a marker and a source of pride.
However, “farmers grow the crops we historically did, but is this the right solution”he questions. “Before, we bought soya and supplements to balance the rations, but soya is extremely expensive now and we must not buy the yield of the animalsestimates Claude Dutour, president of the MFR of Saint-Loup. We always say that MFRs adapt to people, families and young people, so we must also adapt to society. » And re-examine the agricultural model, particularly seeds. “Spelt, triticale, rye, fava beans or even peas, young people have never heard of these varieties”concludes Claude Dutour.
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