Charles Guyard (correspondent), edited by Gauthier Delomez / Photo credits: JULIEN WARNAND / BELGA MAG / Belga via AFP 6:30 a.m., January 28, 2024, modified at 6:32 a.m., January 28, 2024

Is the French agricultural world gradually disappearing? In the next decade, half of the country's farmers will retire, and the recovery of their farms is not assured. In full mobilization, Europe 1 went to interview operators who raised this problem.

“My husband is a farmer, I am a farmer. Our children live in this discomfort, they hear us talk.” The words of this farmer are symbolic of the evolution of the French agricultural world. While farmers have been exposing their anger for more than a week throughout France, they are also seeing a profession in danger.

In the next decade, half of the 500,000 farmers will retire. Discouraged by the numerous constraints, candidates for takeover are becoming increasingly rare, particularly among the farmers' own children who abandon their parents' land.

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The end of a family story spanning several generations

What these children see are often exhausted parents: too much work, no free time, and all this for a pittance of income. “They live in an economic s*** almost all their youth. They have not experienced vacations,” says a farmer at the microphone of Europe 1. A young person takes action: “There are some who continue anyway , for pity's sake. They say to themselves 'it was my parents' before, it sucks when it goes outside the family'".

However, this is increasingly the case. This marks the end of a generations-long family story, and it is heartbreaking for many. “There are farmers who have worked all their lives to transmit, and who will not transmit,” regrets another farmer. “I inherited it from my parents. It’s a family value, and it’s going to go away,” says another, fatalistic.

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An upheaval of the rural landscape

What will leave is not only a heritage, it is also an agricultural model based on the diversity of practices. Livestock farming is in particular increasingly threatened, replaced by less time-consuming cereal crops, more profitable of course, but not without consequences, recalls this land professional. “When we stop milking, we plow. These meadows did not have phytosanitary products, but today, they are treated. It’s ultimately nonsense for the environment,” he explains.

With on average only one installation for three departures in France, the entire rural landscape is on the verge of upheaval.