Louise Sallé 9:33 a.m., February 24, 2023
On the occasion of the 2023 Agricultural Show which begins this Saturday and will continue until March 5 in Paris, Europe 1 takes you to meet people who have nothing to do with the world of breeding. or the cultivation of cereals… And who have decided to leave everything behind to embark on a rural adventure.
On the eve of the opening of the 2023 Agricultural Show, a new challenge awaits the rural world: half of the farmers are over 50 years old.
However, agricultural professions attract new profiles.
In Rennes, a campus specializing in training for agricultural professions, called "The Land", supports nearly 1,500 students each year... Among them, former executives, with an urban profile, in professional retraining, met in the greenhouse, during a market gardening session.
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"I decided to focus on what I wanted to do," says Christelle, 50 and a former civil servant.
She pats the earth around mint leaves, listening to her trainer.
"You have to pay attention to the level in the pot", warns this one.
Christelle continues: "I know that at 50, it's going to be complicated in terms of physical strength...", she confides.
"But by having the right gestures and the right posture, by listening to your body, you can manage to go further".
"I wake up every morning in a place that is beautiful"
Florence, 36, ex-communications officer, smiles behind her computer.
She is working on her business model for her horse breeding.
“Economically, I could not say that I am rich… On the other hand, I think that I wake up every morning in a place which is magnificent, and that I have the chance to realize my dream”, she assures .
Jean-Marc Esnault is president of the Rennes campus "The Land" where two thirds of trainees are city dwellers in retraining, against a third about five years ago.
"They focus more on somewhat atypical productions, such as medicinal or aromatic plants, and rather on small areas, of less than ten hectares", he comments.
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Take risks to give meaning to your job
Finally, in a room just behind, Simon learns to grow mushrooms.
The young man opens a kind of cold room, closed by a zipper… “We really try to reproduce the undergrowth environment, very, very humid”, he explains.
This 29-year-old former computer engineer, who worked at Alstom before the pandemic, is now interested in oyster mushrooms.
He says it himself: he takes risks, of course, but it's to give meaning to his job.