We need to educate about organic farming to encourage vocations

Lhe orientation law for agricultural sovereignty and generational turnover in agriculture arrives at the National Assembly. He is proud to train all future workers in agroecological and climate transitions. And for this reason it establishes that agricultural education must adapt its training to occupational needs and skills for transitions. But not a word about organic farming.

However, we must train tomorrow’s farmers in organic farming. Due to its benefits for the environment and animal welfare, organic farming attracts employees and new farmers. Agricultural education must take into account the attractiveness of this model to satisfy the motivations of tomorrow’s farmers. Furthermore, we know that it is urgent to find solutions to train future farmers, because almost half of the operators he will retire within ten years.

Today, organic represents a quarter to a half of installation projects et 16% of agricultural employment. All this work is in direct service of the agroecological transition: organic farming, which strictly prohibits the use of any synthetic chemical product, is today the controlled and most successful agri-environmental model.

A challenge to guide and train

The future needs of organic agriculture will be added to the current employment needs: the State has reaffirmed in the agricultural orientation pact its objective of 18% of organic surfaces by 2027 et 21% and 2030. If with 10% of the surface organic farming already had 200 thousand jobsit would take at least another 160,000 to reach this goal.

Particularly in agricultural production, the 60,000 organic farms employ on average 30% more labor than conventional farms, bringing dynamism to rural areas. It is a challenge to orient and train all these new hires in the organic industry. In particular to allow those who wish to settle on their own farm and guarantee generational turnover. Yet biological practices and methods still have no place in teaching.

Agricultural education programs clearly stipulate that agroecology must be integrated into all modules: organic is possibly everywhere and nowhere. There is no precise duration, nor a precise definition of agroecology or the practices that encompass it, making the concept very difficult for teachers to understand. They themselves express their lack of resources: 72% say they need more technical content to feel confident teaching organic farming.

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