In Saint-Nom-la-Bétrèche (Yvelines), the start-up NeoFarm cultivates around thirty varieties of vegetables on two hectares.
Enough to produce several tens of tons of organic vegetables distributed in short circuit, in the shops around.
So far, nothing out of the ordinary.
But at Neofarm, under the greenhouses, it is the robots that, for the most part, work... They replace the market gardeners for the most repetitive tasks and assist them with the most difficult ones.
The start-up by Alexia Rey and Olivier Le Blainvaux has developed a dozen robots adapted to agroecology and imagines having twice as many yet to be invented.
Above all, it is preparing to open two other farms, on the same model, in Ile-de-France
Provided you do not raise your nose in the air, nothing distinguishes the NeoFarm farm, in Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche (Yvelines) from a small traditional market gardening operation.
Carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, salads, zucchini… Ninety varieties of around thirty vegetables are grown on the ground, in tight rows that line up over two hectares.
All labeled organic farming and which allows a production of several tens of tons distributed in stores in the surrounding area.
"A third of the plots are outdoors, the other two in greenhouses," says Alexia Rey, co-founder of Neofarm, touring the farm.
It is in the covered part that the young agritech company (those start-ups that work on technological innovations in the service of agriculture) stands out.
Attached to the roofs, a network of rails crisscrosses all the plots and allows an automated gate to access any row of vegetables on the farm.
And to the latter, we can attach to it, according to the needs of the moment, a dozen robotic tools that Neofarm has developed since its creation, at the beginning of 2018 and which it tests, life-size, in this experimental farm inaugurated in June last.
In agroecology, are large machines banned from the outset?
This is the case of this "transplanter" shown by Alexia Rey and who helps the market gardener in planting the mini-clods to start the crop.
“A tedious job when it is done manually, describes the entrepreneur.
You have to be on your knees and pull the crate containing the clods to be planted as you move forward in the row.
» With this transplanter, the farmer remains upright.
“You just have to position the clods in a row in the gutter and the robot takes care of lowering them to the ground and planting them as it goes, she continues.
Not only does the tool reduce the drudgery of this task, but it also makes it possible to perform it no longer in two hours but in twenty minutes…”
Robots in agriculture, it's not so new.
“We have been working on the automation of agricultural machinery for more than 20 years, both to reduce the difficulty of certain tasks and to avoid loss of precision, indicates Ronan Lenain, director of research at the National Institute of Agronomic Research (Inrae), specialized in robotics.
And to date there are 10,000 agricultural robots used in France.
But almost all of them are dedicated to breeding, he specifies, while counting a hundred specialized in weeding, used in market gardening and a dozen others for viticulture.
Declining agritech to agroecology
But in agroecology, it is still elbow grease that prevails.
This production model seeks to rely as much as possible on the services offered by the surrounding nature, by limiting the use of inputs as much as possible and by refraining from chemical products.
By also preserving as much soil and water as possible.
"It's the most sustainable model for future generations," says Alexia Rey.
But also the most difficult.
We are on small areas, with very dense, very diversified crops, without using chemical inputs.
There is this concern to attack the ground as little as possible to best preserve underground life, which immediately eliminates large machines.
»
This is the whole bet then that Neofarm and a handful of other start-ups in France are making: to decline agritech to agroecology, by developing robots adapted to its constraints.
"Very often, we don't invent anything, but we miniaturize machines already used on large plots or we robotize manual tools used in small market gardening farms", continues Alexia Rey.
The transplanter is just one example.
Néofarm has also set up a series of robots specializing in soil preparation (hoeing, raking, leveling, compacting, etc.).
“Tasks again painful and which require a lot of strength”, justifies Alexia Rey.
Another is dedicated to weeding and still others are in the pipeline.
At the risk of destroying a few more agricultural jobs?
Alexia Rey easily imagines that she still has twice as much to invent, “particularly in the harvest aid that we are starting to develop”.
But it's not all about robots.
Another brick in the Neofarm farm is digital, through sensors and software solutions that facilitate farm management.
"Rationalize the use of water, help the best time to sow, plan tasks over time, program robots", list Alexia Rey.
To the point that the gantry is able to fetch the robot itself according to the task assigned to it.
Wonderful or disturbing?
Jonathan Chabert, market gardener for ten years and spokesman for the Confédération paysanne in the Côtes d'Armor, is leaning towards the second reading.
If he is not against improving ergonomics in market gardening, including by machines, he is opposed on the other hand "to the robotization pushed to the extreme offered by start-ups like Neofarm or the Toulousaine Naïo Technologies" .
"This is the next step in the forced march of mechanization of French agriculture, which has the reverse of accentuating the decline of the agricultural population and giving the feeling to some of those who remain of being dispossessed of their their work,” he points out.
Alexia Rey denies wanting to remove farmers: “These robots are there to assist or replace them on the most thankless and repetitive tasks,
allowing them to focus on other tasks that require more of their attention.
»
A turnkey farm that Neofarm wants to duplicate
Above all, the founder of Neofarm evokes the need to deploy agroecology in France as quickly as possible.
“But if we stay on very manual farms, a lot of labor will be needed today when it is difficult to recruit market gardeners today, in particular because of the arduous nature of the work”, continues- she.
An observation that Ronan Lenain also draws up at Inrae.
The institute will also hold a conference this Monday, at the agricultural show, on digital e as a lever to accelerate the evolution of agriculture.
This is the whole idea of Alexia Rey and Olivier Le Blainvaux, her partner: to develop, from Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, a turnkey model of robotic agro-ecological farms to be expanded later.
“Two new farms will be opened this year in Ile-de-France, one in the north,
the other in the south, slips Alexia Rey.
And Neofarm hopes to install around 100 in the next ten years.
Still on this model of small vegetable farms in agroecology, on the outskirts of cities, in short circuit and in association with partners.
The start-up targets two in particular: "large farms (cereals, field crops, livestock) interested in devoting a few hectares of their land to market gardening in order to diversify their activities, but without necessarily having to occupy, begins Alexia Rey.
And communities wishing to reinstall market gardeners on their territories, in particular to relocate supplies for their canteens.
“Each of these farms would require the employment of two market gardeners on permanent contracts, she continues, to show that the development of Neofarm will indeed go through the creation of agricultural jobs.
Not enough to convince Jonathan Chabert.
“The real issue is not the robotization of agriculture but much more access to land, he believes.
We see, in my department as elsewhere, many candidates for installation, far from finding the job of market gardener difficult, but who end up giving up because they have not found a place to settle.
The association Terres de Liens has already warned about this difficulty, last Tuesday, in its report on the state of agricultural land in France.
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