ACMG presented the results of a sociological survey carried out within the framework of the Triple C project

On 17 June 2022, on the occasion of the National Agriculture Days, the ACMG presented the results of a sociological survey carried out within the framework of the Triple C project among farmers and mayors in the South-West of France in order to collect their visions, needs and obstacles in the context of climate change.

38 people were registered to attend the conference including Mayors, journalists, students, farmers, heads of institutions.

294 farmers and 74 mayors testified and shed light on several points :

• The obstacles to current adaptation
• The needs in the face of climate change and thus the future lines of development and research
• Communication tools to be promoted by the institutions
• Communication methods to be implemented by the Triple C project but also by all those wishing to communicate on climate change.
• The levers to be used to establish a collective intelligence around climate hazards.

Here are some results:

Almost all respondents are aware of climate change and characterise it as an increase in temperature and intense weather events”. However, if for the farmers, the main problems for their activity are drought and frost, for the mayors, it would be floods and drought. This difference in perception of emergencies can be explained by daily experience. “Mayors have not experienced or integrated this risk at the same level as farmers, which compromises adaptation.

Another interesting result is that the ACMG asked farmers, via an open-ended question, how they imagine their farm to be in 10 years’ time. 84 people think it will simply be compromised, bankrupt or sold, 72 do not know, while around 30 think they will adapt to the situation. Growing new crops seems to be the most common solution for adaptation, and some have already done so. This mode of adaptation leads to a real mutation of the watersheds at the landscape level, but also at the cultural, economic and historical levels, etc. Another solution lies in the management of water resources, with more than 70 farmers having declared that they have increased their irrigation capacities.

A summary of the results will soon be available on video on the ACMG website and proposed here!