The French livestock industry is undergoing profound change and faces a major challenge. The Chair in Transmission & Innovation - Rethinking Generational Renewal in Livestock Farming focuses its work on the levers that are essential for preserving the sustainability of French livestock farming.
A changing and highly volatile environment
The French livestock sector is undergoing profound change and faces a major challenge: ensuring generational renewal in a context where national protein sovereignty (production of French meat, milk, and eggs) is becoming a strategic issue, on a par with—or even more important than—energy or digital technology.
The aging of the agricultural population is alarming: in 2020, the average age of farmers was 51.4. By 2030, nearly half of all farmers will have ceased their activity. Today, only a third of retiring farmers are likely to be replaced. The direct consequence is that one in three farms is at risk of disappearing by 2035 due to a lack of successors.
Faced with this situation, it is becoming crucial to rethink transfer policies and invent new economic and organizational models.
A three-year scientific approach
While the lack of appeal of the farming profession is often cited as the reason for the difficulties in passing on farms, the work carried out during the chair's first term showed that access to financing is a major obstacle. Purchasing land, modernizing equipment, or supporting the transition to agroecology requires considerable capital, which is difficult for new farmers to raise. Over the past decade, new mechanisms have emerged, including crowdfunding, “green” or “ethical” financial products, land leasing, and equipment leasing. These innovations enrich the financial ecosystem and open up new avenues for facilitating generational renewal.
The chair's primary challenge is to examine these innovations with stakeholders in the livestock sector in order to prioritize, adapt, or reinvent them and thus define an operational model for the financialization of farm establishment.
Beyond financing, the issue of economic risk remains central. Farmers face price volatility, yield variations linked to climate change, and geopolitical instability.
In this context, contractualization (with suppliers, processors, or distributors) appears to be a promising way to secure income while promoting agroecological transition.
The second challenge for the chair is to identify the various existing contractual arrangements and study them in relation to the nature of the livestock farming system in order to guarantee stable outlets for livestock farmers, a reliable supply for investors, and sustainable production.
The chair “Transmission and Innovation: Rethinking Generational Renewal in Livestock Farming,” funded by the Avril Group as part of a sponsorship agreement, is committed to exploring these solutions, reconciling adaptation, innovation, and food sovereignty in order to guarantee a future for the animal sectors and their territories.
Our approach
The approach developed combines an in-depth analysis of existing financialization and contractualization mechanisms with their study within a living lab (a physical and digital space for research and innovation designed to solve complex societal problems by bringing together a variety of stakeholders around the process of ideation and design of future tools) involving farmers, financial actors, and industrialists.
This Living Lab will enable the development of interdisciplinary and collaborative research in order to understand, anticipate (scenario development) and design tools for the financialization and contractualization of sectors in the design or adaptation of future tools and services.
Steering committees
A strategic steering committee
The steering committee develops and validates the Chair's orientations and achievements in line with its objectives, and advises the parties involved in their actions. Its composition is decided by the parties. It will meet at least twice a year.
- UniLaSalle:
- Philippe Choquet, Managing Director UniLaSalle
- or Valérie Leroux, Managing Director
- David Houben, Director of the Collège AgroSciences
- Avril Filières d'Elevages: Christophe Le Bars, Managing Director Avril Solutions pour l'Agriculture (ASA)
- Sanders: Philippe Manry, Director, Animal Nutrition
- MiXscience: Jean-Marc Salaun, Managing Director MiXscience
- Feed Alliance: François Quénéhervé, Managing Director Feed Alliance
- Permanent referent of the Chair for Avril Solutions pour l'Agriculture: David Cassin, Director of Stakeholder Relations
An operational scientific committee
The scientific committee supports the preparation of the program, the validation of methodologies, and the implementation of actions and deliverables. Its composition is decided by the parties. It will meet at least twice a year.
- UniLaSalle:
- Jean-Yves Madec, Professor and Researcher in Animal Nutrition and Animal Science
- Loic Sauvée, Director of the InTerACT research unit
- Avril Solutions pour l'Agriculture:
- Sanders: Stéphane Athimon, Deputy Managing Director, Sanders
- MiXscience: Jean-Marc Salaun, Managing Director, MiXscience
- Feed Alliance: Blandine Quénéhervé, Administrative and Financial Director
A chairholder, project manager
He is dedicated to the program and is recruited by UniLaSalle according to a procedure co-constructed between the parties. This incumbent will be in charge of piloting all of the Chair's activities. He or she will have a "chair referent" within the company, a privileged contact person, enabling optimized coordination between the two structures.
The partnership between Avril & UniLaSalle: an obvious choice!
The partnership between the Avril Group, through its subsidiary Sanders-Nea, and UniLaSalle was facilitated by their long-standing proximity, particularly through their mutual commitment to the agricultural world. Depending on the topics developed, the Chair may welcome other expert and complementary companies, co-opted by the Avril Group and UniLaSalle.
Partners of the Chair
About Avril
As France's fifth-largest agri-food group, Avril is the industrial and financial leader in the French vegetable oil and protein sector. Created by the farming community, the Group develops innovative, healthy, and sustainable solutions to feed people and animals and accelerate the decarbonization of the planet. Its purpose, Serving the Earth, guides its actions, in line with its ambition to become the leader in plant-based transformation for the agricultural, food and environmental transitions by 2030.
In addition to its long-standing role as an investor, the company has developed a manufacturing business firmly rooted in plant processing, from seed to processed product. With a presence in human food, animal nutrition and expertise, renewable energies and green chemistry, it has a portfolio of businesses that are all market leaders in their respective fields.
Building on its ties with French agriculture, Avril has based its growth for over 40 years on a unique value creation model: it reinvests all its profits in the dynamics of its sectors and their development in France and abroad.
With a presence in 18 countries and nearly 8,400 employees across 82 industrial sites and sales offices, Avril generated revenue of €7.7 billion in 2024.
About Sanders
Sanders, leader in animal nutrition and subsidiary of Avril, is committed to each link in the chain of all animal productions. Feeding animals well to feed people well is at the heart of Sanders' know-how. For more than 100 years, Sanders has been supporting the development of the animal sector, a source of growth and employment throughout France, thanks to its local organization in the Regions. Every day, Sanders is committed to working alongside animal production stakeholders to ensure sustainable production and quality products, to support all breeders in their life projects, and to help improve human nutrition.
Sanders in a few figures :
- 24 Oqualim-certified factories throughout France
- 6 concessionary manufacturers and distributors of the brand
- 3.4 million tons of feed produced under the Sanders technique
- 1150 employees
- 26 000 customers
- An international presence: Turkey, Serbia, Tunisia, Algeria
About MiXscience
MiXscience is part of Avril and currently employs 520 people in France and abroad. A major player in animal nutrition in France and abroad, the company has a total turnover of 150 million euros and operates in more than 55 countries. Nearly 10 million tons of feed equivalent are produced each year using MiXscience techniques.
Mixscience develops and markets a product offer composed of premixes, minerals, innovative specialties and biocontrol solutions adapted to different species. Expert services enrich this offer. MiXscience addresses feed manufacturers, integrators and distributors and contributes to the development of sustainable livestock sectors.
About Feed Alliance
Feed Alliance is a company that buys and sells agricultural and agri-food raw materials on behalf of its clients. Created in 1999, Feed Alliance brings together economic players in the animal nutrition sector and other partners in the French agri-food industry. Feed Alliance, an expert in agricultural markets, negotiates 5 million tons of raw materials annually on behalf of companies belonging to the Avril Group, cooperatives and private French feed manufacturers.
Feed Alliance's 30 employees provide tailor-made solutions to different clients in order to improve their competitiveness: market analysis, purchasing strategies and risk arbitration in volatile global markets, quality improvement and implementation of sustainable and local supply chains.
About UniLaSalle
UniLaSalle is positioned as the engineering school at the crossroads of the energy, digital and ecological transitions. It has 4 campuses (Amiens, Beauvais, Rennes, Rouen), 3,800 students, 20,000 alumni, 7 research units, 8 company chairs and research platforms and innovation centers such as Agrilab or the GeoLab.
UniLaSalle offers 20 degree courses from Bac+3 to Bac+6 and conducts research activities at the heart of sustainable development issues. Its know-how is recognized by the business world and is reflected in the excellent employability of its graduates.
The school stands out for its teaching methods, which combine traditional methods and innovative practices (learning by doing, new technologies, etc.).
Because of its Lasallian roots, the school pays particular attention to "integral training", which considers the involvement of its students in the life of the school or in the development of personal projects to be a formative experience and a vector of fulfilment. UniLaSalle is a member of the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles and has the EESPIG label.