His face barred with an eternal smile, André Pochon has infectious enthusiasm. And we can easily imagine that he was able to convince farmers, scientists and politicians of the relevance of grass. He made six pounds of it. He traveled through France and different countries of the world to explain how we can make a living from the land by favoring the meadow. He was even decorated with the Legion of Honor (2001) and the gold medal of the Academy of Agriculture (2011). But he didn’t convince everyone.
In the Côtes-du-Nord, which became Côtes-d’Armor in 1990, André Pochon experienced the rural world of yesteryear, that of a subsistence peasantry where time stood still. But his end was near. After World War II, a new generation rises under the guidance of God. Yes, agricultural progress will come from a youth movement, the Catholic Agricultural Youth (JAC). André joined this cohort at 17. The great agricultural leaders of the time in France emerged from this crucible. In the 1960s, thefrench agriculture modernizes with them.
Another way
The Common Agricultural Policy was put in place in 1962. A generous Cap which “Institutes guaranteed prices, whatever the production”. Suffice to say that the peasants are rushing for the manna “By specializing”. André Pochon, for his part, has the feeling that another path is possible. At the Center for Agricultural Technical Studies (Ceta) in Mur-Corlay, which he set up with seventeen farmers in 1954, André was interested in the intensification of grass, nourished by the work of an agronomist, André Voisin. . With the support of young researchers from the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), Ceta is demonstrating “That the grass-white clover association feeds three times as many animals per hectare”.
André and his wife apply these precepts on their small 9 hectare farm in Saint-Mayeux. “We made money with ten dairy cows and a hundred pigs produced per year. “ He will develop his system with the same ardor on his second farm of 25 hectares in Saint-Bihy. Yet many farmers do not choose this path. Supported by an entire ecosystem (cooperative, bank), they opt for volume growth (milk, pork, poultry in the West), stimulated in the 1970s “By the development of forage corn and the arrival of American soybeans”.
Ideas for the Cap
André will let himself be convinced for a while by the « totem » But. “Until I realized I was making more money with weed. “ His technical knowledge led him to write his first book, in 1981, which contributed to his notoriety. In the process, he set up the Study Center for a More Autonomous Agricultural Development (Cedapa) in the Côtes-du-Nord, which will spread the Initiative Centers to promote agriculture and rural areas (Civam) in France. In the 1980s and 1990s, he witnessed the looming overproduction, the impact of agricultural activity on the environment, and CAP reforms.
He regrets that “The grass (has) never been awarded, except through agri-environmental measures”. At 89, he has not given up on his fight, as each Member State draws the contours of the next Pac (2023-2029). He wrote to the European Commission, the Élysée and the Minister of Agriculture to share his ideas with them (premiums of € 400 per hectare for the first 25 hectares of temporary meadow and areas of ecological interest, € 200 for the following) to aim “The protein autonomy of Europe”. He awaits their return to his little house in Trégueux, certain that “People are starting to wonder”.
Until March 5, Ouest-France is a partner of an operation initiated by France Télévisions, which puts agriculture in the spotlight to support the agricultural world, due to the cancellation of the Agricultural Show this year.
– .
