2023-07-17 16:29:54
Eight out of 10 Walloon farmers suffer the impact of climate change. They do not want to act alone and call for a new mode of consumption.
Climate change is increasingly affecting the agricultural world. The diagnosis that emerges from the 5th Observatory of the agricultural world, a survey carried out on behalf of CBC among 300 Walloon farmers, confirms this moreover: the question of the impact of climate change on agriculture no longer arises. In Wallonia, nearly eight out of 10 farmers (77%) say they are facing difficulties related to global warming, 91% of them believe that these are destined to become structural and undermine the financial profitability of farms.
The most cited climate-related problems are the decrease in yields (81%), the increase in losses (64%) and the delay in terms of planting (56%). In question, the alternation of long dry or wet periods, drought and price volatility. But if the diagnosis is precise, the answers to be given are less so.
“Walloon agriculture is perceived as more family-oriented with many meadows, which are carbon sinks.”
Surprisingly enough, only six out of 10 Walloon farmers feel concerned by climate change. It is true that for 72% of them, the Walloon production method does not weigh on the climate. “Walloon agriculture is perceived as more family-oriented and more linked to surfaces with many meadows, which are carbon sinks”, explains Fabian Wathelet, head of the agricultural segment at CBC.
Consume local and seasonal
Less than one out of two Walloon farmers (48%) actually plans to change or adapt its mode of production or activity in the face of the difficulties posed by global warming, for example by switching to local, regenerative and/or organic agriculture or, conversely, to an intensive production model. “This relative inertia can be explained by financial costs that would result from a change in the type of production, but also by the Afraid of the unknown or by a lack of time”, says Fabian Wathelet.
Faced with global warming, the agricultural world expects mass distribution and consumers to contribute their stone to the building. Nearly 6 out of 10 farmers believe that climate change will have an impact on the current marketing model. That they see reorienting towards a consumption of seasonal products (83%), towards a decrease in the consumption of imported products (77%) and towards the production and consumption of products better adapted to climate change (76%).
Large retailers are therefore asked to highlight the local and/or organic products and not to market only seasonal products. It is up to consumers to support this effort by consuming more local, seasonal products and buying fewer imported products.
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