Two years of agronomic trials: where does CICS 10 stand?
In 2023, a group of farmers in the Anjou region began a series of full-scale experiments on lentil-based associated crops, with the aim of marketing these lentils to local caterers. A year later, the group’s focus has changed.
The group is made up of seven farmers, all organic, located in Maine-et-Loire. All are Cuma members.
New agronomic trials
In December 2023, a feedback workshop was organized to present the results of this campaign and review the organization of the project. In January 2024, Laurent BEDOUSSAC (ENSFEA-INRAE) and Céline LE GARDIEN (GABBAnjou) held one-to-one meetings with each farmer to co-design the lentil technical itineraries to be implemented on their farms in 2024, in line with each farmer’s own objectives and material and agronomic possibilities. Based on exchanges of experience and the results obtained in 2023, prototypes of technical itineraries were defined at the end of these meetings, namely the species to be combined, sowing densities and planting methods.
Margot Petit arrived in February 2024 as a trainee to monitor the trials in detail: sowing, density, germination rate, emergence rate, total biomass, weeds, height, lodging, all these indicators were scrutinized.
Post-harvest bruchid management tests were also carried out, to improve the quality of harvested crops.
Project to purchase an optical sorter
The optical sorter project, originally scheduled for installation in December 2023, has been delayed due to farmers’ concerns about the workload and structural changes induced by this new tool. The group still needs to fine-tune the logistics and organization around this project, by assessing the working time required to master the optical sorter, the work involved in fitting out the farm, the increase in traffic (skip, trailer) and the number of people on the farm hosting the tool, etc.
Ongoing discussions with the catering industry
Recipe tests were carried out with a catering company, based on a 300 kg batch of lentils in November 2023. The project partners also visited the kitchen. However, the project has not yet come to fruition due to major changes in the conditions of the public contract for collective catering, to which farmers have not had time to adapt.
The GABB continued the reflection by cataloging the producers’ offers and exploring local market opportunities beyond collective catering. Exchanges with local players still need to be pursued to help farmers achieve their objectives.