Terres Inovia launches Cap Agronomie®, a new support service for agro-ecological systems
Terres Inovia launches Cap Agronomie®, a new support service for agro-ecological systems
Terres Inovia has designed a new long-term support offer that reinvents the way advice is given: Cap Agronomie®. Using a specific method, Cap Agronomie® trains, supports and equips advisors and technicians to give them the keys to expertise that will enable them to respond to the new challenges of resilience and sustainability faced by farmers.
Climate change, carbon issues, soil fertility... oilseed growers have to adapt to these changing external conditions and develop their practices to maintain their production and competitiveness while preserving the environment. This also means that agricultural advisors need to reinvent the way they support producers over the long term, so that solutions can emerge that are tailored to each individual situation.
Training, support and tools for farm advisers and technicians
To develop this solid agronomic and agro-ecological expertise, Terres Inovia has created an offer tailored to advisers who wish to develop their advisory skills: Cap Agronomie®. The aim? To achieve 100% more robust crops to cope better with climatic hazards and disease pressure, and to make cropping systems more resilient. "Cap Agronomie® is a unique product that gives advisers the keys, methods and tools they need to deal with their specific situation, while providing long-term support based on the Institute's expertise," explains Jean-François Bélanger, Chairman and CEO of Cap Agronomie®.
The aim of Cap Agronomie®: expecting 100% more robust crops
With Cap Agronomie®, advisers are able to develop tailor-made approaches for each farm, far from standardised solutions, to shape tomorrow's more efficient and profitable agriculture. In this way, they become trusted partners for farmers, able to guide them towards personalised solutions that take account of their specific characteristics and profitability objectives.
In practical terms, the Cap Agronomie® approach involves two stages:
1. training advisers in the Cap Agronomie® approach
2. deployment of the tools and approach to their network of farmers, with support from Terres Inovia.
Long-term training for advisors
The Cap Agronomie® approach consists first and foremost of training and action over several seasons.
In practical terms, it begins with a module presenting and familiarising the method with the chosen theme, with technical and scientific input illustrated by practical examples: improving soil fertility, controlling weed control with grasses, introducing legumes into the rotation, and so on.
The course then continues with other modules in the field , where the tools and methods are put into practice.
At the end of the season, an assessment is made to measure the progress made and to set objectives for the coming season, to evaluate the increase in expertise of the advisers, etc.
In the field, with Cap Agronomie®.
This long-term training programme enables agricultural advisors and technicians to receive practical, step-by-step training and support over several seasons from a Terres Inovia development engineer and a pool of specialists who will pass on the innovative methods and tools tested by the Institute.
Deployment of the Cap Agronomie® approach to farmers
This training-action enables advisors to deploy the tools offered by Terres Inovia to support their own networks of farmers, while at the same time receiving training. This second stage, based on the expression of farmers' needs and problems, enables advisers to put the lessons they have learned to the test in the field while continuing to receive support from Terres Inovia.
Cap Agronomie®: three challenges and two objectives
Three challenges
Maintaining the competitiveness of farms
Maintaining, and often increasing, production levels
Adapting farming practices and advice to successfully complete the agro-ecological transition
Two objectives
To achieve 100% more robust crops to cope better with climatic hazards and disease pressure, and greater resilience in cropping systems.
To enable advisers to enhance their skills and provide "expert" support, tailored to farmers' needs.
Launched in 2023, Cap Agronomie® is currently being rolled out to two cooperatives, 110 Bourgogne and Ynovaé, as well as the agronomy department of their SeineYonne Union, which are training all their technical sales staff and agronomy advisers in soil fertility.
Cap Agronomie® has also been chosen by the Chays establishment in Franche-Comté to help farmers overcome the obstacles to faba bean production.
| Three questions to Delphine de Fornel, Cap Agronomie product manager at Terres Inovia Where did the Cap Agronomie® approach come from? What are the objectives of this approach? Cap Agronomie® involves a lot of time spent together, in the field, to pass on the expertise, tools and methods needed by advisers to diagnose plots of land and adapt their advice to the needs and constraints of the farmer. This support is provided step by step, along a path chosen together at the start of the course. Cap Agronomie also includes in-class assessments, ongoing exchanges and feedback via a forum for trained advisers. |