The experience-sharing day held on 21 February at the Mas du Pont Rousty, co-organised by the Tour du Valat Foundation via the Lagoons Transfer programme and the Camargue Regional Natural Park, brought together more than 70 participants, including farmers, researchers, local authorities, and representatives of State services. A reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is jeopardising the Camargue’s current agricultural economic model, in particular rice farming, and causing a wave of controversy. For some, it is the “Death of the Camargue,” while for others, it is an opportunity. What should we think of the announced changes? This experience-sharing day was an opportunity to discuss the prospects for Camargue farmers to make their activities more sustainable.
Giving voice to stakeholders involved in agriculture in the Camargue
The experience-sharing day was organised to extend the awareness-raising of World Wetlands Day 2014 around the theme “Wetlands and Agriculture: Partners in Growth!” It was open to stakeholders directly or indirectly involved in agricultural activities in Camargue wetlands. The objective was to provide an opportunity for them to share their experiences and to consider how to achieve an economically viable agricultural model, taking into consideration the CAP reforms, which can be reconciled with the ecological issues of the area.
The exchanges were enriched by presentations from the association representing breeders of bulls for Course Camarguaise events, the Centre of Evolutionary and Functional Ecology (CEFE) of the CNRS, the Chamber of Agriculture of the Bouches-du-Rhône department, stock breeders, the Tour du Valat Foundation, Bouches-du-Rhône Gîtes de France (holiday homes), the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), a representative of the ministry responsible for agriculture, the Camargue Regional Natural Park (PNRC), rice farmers, and the syndicate representing French rice growers and the rice industry.
Contexts of rice farming and livestock breeding
First of all, a history of the relationship between agriculture and wetlands was presented based on concrete examples from the Mediterranean, including local examples from the Camargue (the evolution of this relationship, the natural resources available, the biodiversity present and threats to it). Emphasis was placed on how agriculture has changed in the Rhône Delta since the 1970s, underlining that post-war agricultural systems involving, in particular, vineyards and orchards, which have almost completely disappeared and given way to rice farming and livestock breeding. After a sharp decline in the early 1980s, the amount of land devoted to rice growing has increased considerably, to the extent that it now occupies more than half of the Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA), and cattle farming is now much more widespread than sheep farming. Rearing practices are still extensive even though the area of pasture land has remained stable.
Rice farming and livestock breeding are now pivotal systems for agriculture in the Camargue, directly or indirectly generating more than 2,000 jobs. Since the 1990s, Camargue agriculture has invested in quality measures (protected designation of origin, PDO, and protected geographical indication, PGI), the diversification of activities (shortened supply chains and receiving the general public), organic farming, and initiatives for the recognition of local breeds. These types of agriculture are now faced with new challenges in several respects; ecological (quantitative and qualitative water management, consideration of biodiversity, preservation of landscapes), technical (controlling inputs, adaptation of grazing and the specifications for the grazing of natural habitats), and economic (need to promote the value of bull meat, an industry subject to the international economic climate).
The presentations also provided an opportunity to discuss the consideration of wetlands in the “second pillar” of the Common Agricultural Policy and new instruments for assisting agricultural practices: Agri-Environment-Climate Measures. In this framework, various agricultural practices carried out in wetlands should be sustained, including rice farming and livestock breeding, but with a significantly different distribution of the grants awarded to farmers, and a consequent reduction in the combined grants that have predominated until now. The farmers present were able to express their concern with regard to these changes and to explain the necessity, in their view, of placing economic questions at the centre of the debate.
Thematic sessions on farming activities and their diversification
The rest of the day was organised around three thematic sessions:
- Rice farming: this was the opportunity to present the changes in rice farming in the Camargue, and how various technical, political and environmental factors have affected rice production and the amount of land used for rice farming over the past 50 years. A study conducted by the INRA on the points of view of rice farmers on the sustainability of farm production systems (technical, economic, environmental, and organic farming) was presented. The session was based around a rice farmer relating his experiences.
- Extensive livestock rearing: the Tour du Valat Foundation presented the interests of extensive grazing for natural wetland habitats and their biodiversity, and how complex it is for livestock breeders to manage and rotate grazing pressure on different plots of land to gain the maximum benefit from extensive grazing. The risk to biodiversity of abandoning the least productive wetland habitat farming areas was raised, as was the necessity to improve support measures and promote the various job opportunities to mitigate this risk. The session was based round a livestock breeder talking about her experiences.
- On the diversification of farming practices in the Camargue: the Bouches-des-Rhône Chamber of Agriculture presented various ways in which farming practices have evolved in the Camargue, and their interests and limits, and the PNRC reported on the current state of agritourism, which has been developing in this area since the 1990s. The European Charter for Sustainable Tourism and the “Camargue Regional Natural Park” brand created by PNRC were presented, before a talk by the Director of Gîtes de France (holiday homes) Bouches-du-Rhône.
Thanks to the exchanges that took place between the audience, the representatives of the different areas of production, and the representative from the Ministry of Agriculture, this day enabled the farmers to obtain some concrete answers to their many questions. It also helped to put into perspective the current issues related to changing farming practices and funds allocated to farming because of unforeseeable agricultural changes that will occur in the Camargue.
Photo copyrights: Marjorie Mercier / PNR de Camargue