R.POCHET, L.RUBAN, F.BARRIUSO, A.CHARLES, M.BONNARD, J.HUMBERT, JC.LHOMMET

Mediterranean territory is particularly vulnerable to climate change and so is South of France.
Agriculture is strongly linked to climate, meaning it is especially vulnerable to its changes.

Agroecology provides solutions to improve resilience to climate change and to mitigate its impacts, through two practices: implementation of plant cover and getting trees back in the fields.

However, those practices are poorly documented so farmers need to become scientist-farmers: small-scale experiments, monitoring and tracking of achievements and sharing of knowledge are thus necessary before scaling up.

Moreover, agroecological transition is a long time process to achieve a new equilibrium in the fields ecosystems, especially regarding soil fertility that will impact the yield.

Since many years, L’OCCITANE has been developed ethical and sustainable sourcing policies with its producers of iconic ingredients: immortelle, verbena, lavender, almond, rose…

By 2025, L’OCCITANE is committed to strengthen those policies by getting 6 supply chains in Corsica and Provence certified according to fair trade standards.
Fair trade certification implies guaranties for farmers but also obligations:

• A fair price must be established, that takes into account the costs and risks related to this agroecological transition
• Producers must get organized in a collective and democratic way
• Part of the price paid by the client goes to a development fund dedicated to finance collective projects

Based on those facts (agroecological transition difficult due to the lack of technical references for aromatic and medicinal plants, fair trade opportunities and constraints), 11 producers have decided to create a fair trade and agroecological group, with the support of L’OCCITANE.
The collective organization aimed to facilitate the implementation of a small-scale experimentation program by sharing resources, mitigate failure risks, and capitalizing on results.

2 years after the creation of this collective of farmers, here is the question we explore:
What roles did the collective organization and fair trade approach play in getting the farmers actively involved into agroecological transition?
Our study aims to demonstrate the interdependences between economic equity, agroecological transition and knowledge sharing in a group.

Our research-action approach supports the producers in two ways: we animate the collective organization, and technically monitor and supervise the fields experiments. We can then gather information on a regularly basis, both regarding the group functionning and the field results.

We can highlight 3 types of results:
Regarding the agroecological transition of farmers
Since the beginning of the collective of farmers:

• 11 plant cover tests were conducted, representing 10 ha of seedlings in the farmers’ fields
• 4 farmers planted trees on their farms, and 6 of them could get technical support for plantation

Regarding the role fair trade played in getting agroecological results

• Farmers’ incomes got stabilized
• Secure incomes (through long term contracts with price decided in advance etc) allowed farmers to launch agroecological experiments
• Financing field tests and costs related to the agroecological transition is a necessary condition to get farmers into this transition. It is however not enough: technical support and specific trainings are also necessary.

Regarding the role the collective organization played in getting agroecological results

• Through the collective organization, farmers could access specific trainings adapted to their needs and issues. They could improve both their knowledge and skills.
• It also played a key role in enhancing the farmer motivation and allowed sharing of experiences and results, even though crops cultivated among the farmers were different.
• The collective of farmers have thus taken fair trade certification benefits and constraints on board to use them as a real lever in agroecological transition.

Thanks to the collective organization and the economic resources generated by fair trade certification, farmers could implement plant cover tests and plant trees, and so take a first step on their path to agroecological transition.