The fields are languishing, the soil is becoming depleted, and farmers are struggling against all odds. Future generations depend on our actions today.
At the end of the Fourth Republic, Radicals and Christian Democrats, embroiled in their parliamentary quarrels, failed to launch the major reform of agricultural education that would have been essential to accompany the change from a protectionist model established by the Méline laws, which maintained high agricultural prices on the domestic market but opened up to international competition from 1956 onwards. It was not until the 1960s and the actions of Edgar Pisani that a genuine agricultural education system was established in France. Through six laws, this reform made it possible to better train the rural population to face the new challenges linked to the changes of the time: land consolidation, farm expansion, use of fertilizers, mechanization, etc. All this took place in the context of post-war reconstruction, marked by the Marshall Plan.
In 1981, with the arrival of the left wing in power, a new turning point in agricultural education took place. It was necessary to raise the level of training and prepare farmers for new tasks. As Michel Rocard pointed out at the time, "a good harvest is not one that is abundant, but one that sells." Farmers were no longer just technicians, but also managers and salespeople. Since then, the concept of agroecology, dear to former Minister Stéphane Le Foll, has emerged.Agroecology focuses on reconciling environmental preservation and economic efficiency. However, these issues arise differently among winegrowers, grain farmers, and livestock farmers. How can we achieve a clear and shared agricultural project today? How can we move from a concept, that of agroecology, to a requirement that can no longer be denied? Faced with the transition challenges posed by agroecology, what role should agricultural education play?
The rural world, and more specifically the agricultural world, is central to the preservation of agricultural world, are central to the preservation of life on our planet...
