The years follow one another and look alike in the world of agriculture. The latest figures from the 2020 agricultural census, released last December, once again depict a sector where demographic decline is adding to economic difficulties. As the 58th opens edition of the Salon de l’agriculture, in Paris, Saturday 26 February and until 6 March, franceinfo draws the robot portrait of French farmers.
Farmers remain mostly men
In this sector of activity, men represent the vast majority of the workforce. In 2019, women represented just over a quarter (26.6%) of the farming population according to INSEE. A lower share than in 1982 (38.7%). “The figures clearly show that there is no feminization of the profession”, notes François Purseigle, sociologist of the agricultural world. Questioned by franceinfo, he recognizes that the place of women has often been linked to that of their husband in the history of this profession. When he was farm manager, his wife worked in the fields, without any real status.
This persistent disparity is mainly due to “the current hardship of work on the farm” believes Jérôme Volle, winegrower in Ardèche and vice-president of the National Federation of Farmers’ Unions (FNSEA). In the future, he sees the profession becoming more mechanized. As a result, the trade unionist hopes for an upsurge in the number of women farmers: “The more our professions are physically accessible, the more we will be able to welcome an audience that is both urban and feminized.”
From there to imagining one day parity between women and men in agriculture? No one can predict it. However, Nicolas Girod, spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne, thinks it would be a “real asset” for a predominantly male sector. “For once, they will have different decision-making and orientations, allowing them to get out of the current competitive scheme of neighbors playing who has the biggest tractor and the biggest farm”hopes the one who is a milk producer in the Jura.
Two out of three farmers are over 45
The INSEE figures are the photograph of an aging agricultural world. If the 1999 census rather showed a rejuvenation compared to 1982, the trend has been reversed. While almost one out of two farmers (47%) was between 25 and 44 years old, this age group now represents only one out of three farmers (32%). The proportion of farmers between the ages of 45 and 59 has again become similar to that of 1982 (51%). The proportion of the oldest (60 years and over), which fell to 5% in 1999, reached 15% in 2018. As many farmers are likely to retire in the near future.
The sector will face a demographic challenge: a third of farmers (33%) are over 60 years or will reach this age in the next five years, and will then be eligible to retire. If this may worry the Mutualité sociale agricole, others see this deadline in a good light. “I prefer to see it as an opportunity. If we make the right political and union choices in terms of income and the image of the profession, we could end up in 15 years with better agriculture”hopes Nicolas Girod, spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne.
Farmers aged 25 to 44 still constitute a third of the agricultural population, and could represent the next generation. The share of 16-24 years in the world of work, on the other hand, weighs almost nothing, because a large number of future farmers now continue their education up to the baccalaureate, or even towards a higher education diploma such as the BTS.
They are more and more qualified
“I could have gone to work as soon as I got my professional baccalaureate, but I find it more advantageous to have a bigger school background”, explains Flavien Jezequel, student in BTS at the agricultural school of Pommerit (Côtes-d’Armor). In the 1970s, it was rare for a farmer to have a degree. Today, one out of two farmers has at least a baccalaureate (25.5% have stopped studying at this level, and 26.4% have a higher education diploma). Every year, nearly 200,000 students are trained in the 800 establishments dedicated to the agricultural world, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
This trend reflects the evolution of an increasingly complex profession. “Being a farmer means being able to master new legal forms, sell your products, and create a business to do methanization or photovoltaic energy”lists the sociologist François Purseigle.
“If there are more graduates, it is because the granting of financial aid has changed in the legislation”, adds Pierre Bernabé, director of the National Rural Union for Education and Promotion (UNREP). Thus, to qualify for the young farmer endowment, financial aid for the installation of 32,700 euros on average, the project leader must now have at least obtained the baccalaureate or the professional diploma in charge of agricultural business.
There are fewer and fewer managers
The figures leave no doubt: there are always fewer farm managers in France. Defined by INSEE as “the natural persons responsible for the day-to-day management of the operation”, it is they who make up the majority of farmers, a socio-professional category which also includes partners and non-salaried family helpers. Since 1982, the number of farm managers has fallen by around 2% on average each year. Today is the equivalent of 31 846 fewer farmers in one year.
“We are obsessed with the issue of farm managers. But the challenge is the renewal of agricultural workers, the women and men who will take on agricultural work”nuance François Purseigle, also a member of the group of studies and research on the mutations of the agricultural enterprise of the INP-Ensat of Toulouse.
The sociologist notes the existence of a “mismatch between the supply of farms to be taken over and the demand from new project leaders”. He adds : “You have young and old who would like to settle on micro-farms, even though there are plenty of small farms [de taille modeste mais plus importante] to resume.” The existing farms do not always find takers, and the farm managers sell them to neighboring farmers. Consequently, the number of farms in France is falling considerably, while the agricultural area used has increased by 12 hectares on average per farm between 2010 and 2020.
The increase in work volumes (55 hours on average per week according to INSEE) forces farm managers to resort to additional manpower, by recruiting more permanent, seasonal or occasional employees. In 20 years, these other agricultural assets have increased from 282,000 to 328,000, an increase of 16%.
“The Covid crisis has revealed the strengths of French agriculture, but also its weaknesses, analyzes François Purseigle, in particular its degree of dependence on occasional or seasonal employees, particularly in the wine and fruit and vegetable sectors”. This new scheme, where agricultural activity is delegated to employees, does not please everyone. “It should not go too far. We must not neglect our work, as oWe left the processing of our products to manufacturers, who today capture most of the added value”raises Nicolas Girod, of the Peasant Confederation.
Their activity is less and less family
In the 1960s and 1970s, becoming a farmer was a legacy, and a farm could be passed down through generations. Today, farming is less and less a family affair. Agreste, the statistical service of the Ministry of Agriculture, observes a sharp drop in family assets, with self-employed people working for a farm manager belonging to their family, in particular spouses. Between 1970 and 2010, their number had increased from more than 1.9 million to 220,000, a drop of 88.5%. Data from the 2020 agricultural census on this point are not yet available, but there is no indication that the trend has reversed.
We also note a slight increase in installations “outside the family”, that is to say on the part of new farmers who do not operate a farm inherited from their family. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, they represented 26% of new settlers in 2015, 29% in 2016, 32% in 2017. In 2020, this rate rose to 33% according to Young Farmers, another union of the profession.
“We have to stop telling ourselves that we are going to replace generations of peasants with sons and grandsons.”
Nicolas Girod, spokesperson for the Confédération paysanneat franceinfo
If this trend may seem promising for the renewal of the agricultural population, in demographic decline, it is difficult to establish if these new settlers really come from a different background, or if they are children of farmers. having simply chosen to settle elsewhere than on the family farm. “It’s a blind spot in the statistical apparatus. We have no figures allowing us to quantify these people from non-agricultural backgrounds”warns François Purseigle.
One in five farm households lives below the poverty line
“When you know the time spent on a daily basis, it is very sad to know that a farmer still lives below the poverty line”, laments Jérôme Volle, vice-president of the FNSEA. Remuneration has become the fight of a whole industry. Every year, farmers show their dissatisfaction with mass distribution and European competition.
“Rare are those who make a fortune in agriculture. The argument is the profession of passion, with a comfortable life, according to their conviction”, recognizes Pierre Bernabé, director of the UNREP. In 2018, nearly one in five agricultural households (18.1%) lived below the poverty line, then set at 1,063 euros monthly, observed INSEE.
The finding varies according to the sector of activity of the household. The most affected are the breeders. Thus, a quarter of agricultural households raising cattle for their meat live below the poverty line, and 10% of them have a standard of living below 714 euros per month after tax. Revenues from the fruit growing sector also fluctuate wildly. If 10% of fruit producers live with a sum greater than 4,135 euros per month, poverty affects 23.3% of households. In question, “Spanish, Dutch or Polish competition”according to Nicolas Girod of the Confédération Paysanne, but above all “unstable weather situations“.
In October, Parliament passed the Egalim law 2, aiming to better remunerate the agricultural world. In particular, it generalizes written contracts of at least three years between the farmer and the company that is going to process his products, and forces production costs to be taken into account. The annual commercial negotiations between large retailers, on the one hand, and industrialists and producers, on the other, must be completed on the 1st March and take place in a tense atmosphere, against a backdrop of inflation. Demonstrations by farmers demanding better prices have multiplied in recent months. All the unions say it: obtaining better remuneration from the agricultural world has definitely become “the challenge of tomorrow”.