France: half of all farmers will retire by 2030 – the challenge of generational renewal

In recent years, the government has therefore established a comprehensive system of incentives and support measures aimed at young farmers. Among the most significant measures is the Pacte d’Orientation pour le renouvellement des générations en agriculture, adopted in 2024, which aims to facilitate access to land, encourage the transfer of farms and support the younger generation in developing their own business ventures.

The plan provides for new investment instruments for the purchase of agricultural land, amendments to rural tenancy agreements and a national programme to provide guidance on careers in agriculture. The tax system has also been revised to encourage the transfer of farms to young farmers, by increasing tax exemptions on capital gains arising from the sale of agricultural assets.

In addition to these measures, there is the new supplementary support provided for under the Common Agricultural Policy for young French farmers: a fixed grant of 4,300 euros per farm, regardless of the size of the cultivated area, introduced to replace the previous system which ultimately favoured larger farms.

Despite the incentives, the main obstacle remains the same: access to land.

Many farmers approaching retirement prefer to sell their land to neighbours looking to expand their farms rather than to young entrepreneurs entering the sector for the first time. This trend encourages land concentration and makes it more difficult for new businesses to enter the market.

This is why one of the tools yielding the best results is one-to-one mentoring. In the Île-de-France region alone, in 2025, the Chambers of Agriculture conducted 133 one-to-one interviews with aspiring farmers – 22 per cent more than the previous year. The aim is not merely to provide administrative support, but to offer practical guidance to help candidates build their own entrepreneurial journey.

In France, generational renewal is increasingly a matter of matching supply and demand in the farming sector. It is not enough simply to persuade young people to choose a career in farming: we need to create the conditions to ensure that those leaving the sector can pass on their businesses to a new generation.

This is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the French model: a growing proportion of new farmers fall into the category of the so-called ‘hors cadre familial’ – that is, young people who do not come from farming families and who voluntarily choose to invest in the land.

They are often university graduates, professionals or people who have gained work experience in other sectors and who see agriculture as an opportunity to build a business venture that is in line with their values.

Interest in agroecology, organic farming, short supply chains and food sovereignty is one of the sector’s main attractions. The aim is not simply to produce food, but to contribute to the ecological transition and develop more sustainable production models. French agriculture is therefore becoming a sector capable of attracting new skills, often very different from those traditionally associated with farm work.

Innovation is also playing a decisive role. As part of the France 2030 plan, the French government has allocated 65 million euros to a research programme dedicated to agroecology and digital technologies applied to agriculture. Sensors, satellite monitoring, artificial intelligence and precision farming are now regarded as key tools for accelerating the sector’s ecological transition.

Farming is gradually ceasing to be seen as a purely physical trade and is evolving into a profession that combines digital, environmental and entrepreneurial skills.

One example of this is the French start-ups developing electric tractors and agricultural robots designed for agroecology. Technological innovation, in fact, is not seen as an alternative to sustainability, but as a tool to make it economically viable.

This change also helps to make the sector more attractive to younger generations, who are particularly concerned about sustainability and digitalisation.

The generational change, however, is not limited to agriculture. The consequences of the lack of new farming businesses are particularly evident in the so-called ‘diagonale du vide’, the ‘empty diagonal’ – a strip of French territory stretching from the north-east to the south-west, which has become a symbol of rural depopulation across Europe.

When farms close down, local services follow the same pattern. Schools, pharmacies, health centres and post offices gradually become economically unsustainable. The result is a vicious circle: fewer services mean fewer families are willing to move to rural areas, making it even harder to attract new farmers.

The consequences are not merely economic and social. The abandonment of land also leads to the loss of agricultural landscapes that have been shaped over the centuries, of local agronomic knowledge, and of farming practices closely linked to the local area.

France is slowly realising that tradition and innovation are not mutually exclusive.

The most promising models are those that succeed in bringing together the experience of farmers approaching retirement with the technological and entrepreneurial skills of newcomers. The French Chambers of Agriculture are investing increasingly in programmes dedicated to knowledge transfer, organising meetings between farmers who are leaving the business and young entrepreneurs interested in taking it over.

Sensors, satellites and artificial intelligence can make farm work less labour-intensive and more efficient, but they cannot replace the wealth of knowledge built up over decades of experience.

Rather than a generational change, perhaps it would be more accurate, in the case of France, to speak of generational transmission. Because the real challenge is not merely to work out who will farm the land tomorrow, but to ensure that, along with the land, the knowledge, skills and connection to the local area that make today’s agriculture possible are also passed on.

*This article is part of the European collaborative journalism project “Pulse” and was produced with the contribution of Silvia Martelli