Encouraging Sustainable Agricultural Practices

Maïsadour is the main agricultural cooperative in the southwest of France, with a turnover of 1.4 billion € and about 5000 farmers. As a responsible group actively preparing the future of agriculture in the region, Maïsadour is engaged in the agro-ecological transition towards more resilient and sustainable practices through innovation and ambitious targets.

We launched earlier this year our new company strategy, ‘Ambition 2030’, to embark all stakeholders towards common goals on four pillars: We believe that strong economic performance is a condition for achieving agro-ecological transformation in all our activities (vegetal and animal productions, fish, poultry and duck factories). ESG is not only required by our partners (banks, clients, institutions) but also a condition to remain attractive for talents, hence building strong teams and proposing solutions to meet the climatic and economic challenges of our time. The success of this transformation will benefit our territory.

60 to 75 per cent of carbon emissions of food products are related to farming. As all organisations are challenged to decrease their carbon emissions, they turn to farmers and push them to reduce their emissions. Maïsadour is not only working to support farmers on carbon emissions reduction but also finding opportunities to leverage the carbon storage capacity of sustainable farming practices while maintaining stable production yields.

Maïsadour and all its teams are committed to the agro-ecological transition, which must be able to combine ecological and economic sustainability to maintain and develop France's agri-food independence while preserving its farmers.

Through sustainable farming practices at Maïsadour, we mean permanent soil cover, crop rotation, soil protection and fertility, diversification of production and biodiversity, and preservation of water resources (optimised irrigation).

Business cycles are much faster than agriculture: carbon credits were initially perceived as the way to finance the transition towards more sustainable farming practices, but the market hasn't (yet?) bought them. Low carbon productions as structured chains have also been developed so that industrial users of a specific production would finance the transition.

Hence, we are working with our industrial customers and partners on models to produce agricultural products with the lowest possible greenhouse gas emissions (from field to grain ready to be delivered to industrial customers) and maximising carbon storage. Additional costs needed to implement sustainable practices could be financed by a better price to the farmer but could also combine carbon credits and other forms of financing.

We also work hand in hand with government institutions, namely ‘Region Nouvelle Aquitaine’, to challenge our choices of priorities on regenerative agriculture practices.

Maïsadour and all its teams are committed to the agro-ecological transition, which must be able to combine ecological and economic sustainability in order to maintain and develop France's agri-food independence while preserving its farmers.