Monitoring greenhouse tomatoes by computer processing of GPS fields, sales of wheat on the futures market … French farmers have nothing to do with their ancestors. Now they are showing their attachment to the land of a sudden high-tech.Plus question, for example, to sow the fly in vegetable and grain farms. The embedded software on tractors is more effective. Sebastien Objois, wheat producer in Evry, came to be convinced to stand agricultural equipment of the Exhibition of Agriculture. He witnessed a demonstration of interest Farmstar, which uses data from satellites SPOT 4 and SPOT 5. With this system, a digital pad and connected to the preprogrammed drill or spray can, depending on the characteristics of the field, sow more or less dense or spread more or less treatment.
"With board computerized equipment in the tractor plugged Spot 4 and Spot 5, you can sow your field with an accuracy of 2 centimeters," says Michel Fuga, who came to promote the Farmstar Porte de Versailles. Advantage for growers: Pesticide use is reduced by 5-15%. This saving can be amortized over three years the cost of equipment (about 15,000 euros).
More free time
Technological advances also benefit dairy farmers. With milking robots, the constraints of the morning and evening disappear. The cows go by themselves to trafficking. "The monitoring of the herd is behind the screen using a special software," says Eric Swartvagher, administrator ANEFA, National Association for the employment and training in agriculture.
Computers are also present in vegetable greenhouses. "Eating tomatoes above ground is now available from a computer, which controls the amount of water and air," says Angelique Delahaye, president of France and producer of vegetables in Touraine.
It is not enough to produce, we also sell the goods. The use of futures market or delayed deliveries, and a deadline for a given price, is becoming more common. "I practiced for several months to sell my pigs and to buy my food. But it took me to form, "says Philippe Upstream, pig farmer in Brittany.
"These new techniques not only meet the objective of increasing yields, and therefore income, but also a willingness of farmers to benefit from free time and family life close to those of society," said Christophe Malvezin, Agricultural Counselor, Embassy of France in Washington and former agricultural adviser of Nicolas Sarkozy.
Despite these advances, the French agriculture still has a wide margin for improvement. "While the United States, 80% of crops are produced by biotechnology, in France it is delayed, concludes Guy Vasseur, president of the Permanent Assembly of Chambers of Agriculture (APCA). France can not be a spectator in this area of what is happening in the world. "
680,000 visitors to the agricultural show this year
Vintage 2012 International Exhibition of Agriculture (SIA) is very good. "We record 680,000 visitors, slightly more than last year," says Jean-Luc Poulain, president of SIA. This figure could be revised upwards as a computer bug has disrupted the counting inputs. "Merchants have never worked so hard that Wednesday, we recorded one of the lowest attendance days, with 55,000 entries," says Jean-Luc Poulain. The Friday night has been successful in statistics, with nearly 107,000 visitors for the biggest day of the show. Again this year, the SIA will remain the largest agricultural fair in the world with this feature: together in one place all the farm animals.
ALSO READ:
"The five major challenges of the next five-year farm
"An Exhibition of Agriculture policy very