A fundraiser to develop agroecology

M.M-D: The Foundation was created in 2012 under the aegis of the ParisTech Foundation. The initial idea, born of a shared desire of AgroParisTech alumni and the Maison des ingénieurs agronomes, was to create a tool for the institution to provide financial resources and skills from the world outside the school, but also to facilitate AgroParisTech’s links with its ecosystem, both public and private. Several activities were launched at the time of its creation: calls for grant projects, the creation of thematic Chairs to enable teacher-researchers to work in project mode with partners based on a research topic that illustrates the various themes of AgroParisTech, and “action research” projects recognized in their field. In just over ten years, our track record has been more than positive: we have been able to support more than 800 projects, participate in the creation and development of a dozen or so patronage chairs and bring together more than 70 partners of all kinds. On the strength of these figures and after 18 months of work, in November 2023 the Foundation obtained its status as an autonomous foundation recognized as being of public utility (FRUP), the highest distinction. This status led to the appointment of a new board of directors and a new president: Olivier Guize.

O.G: For such a young foundation, raising such a large sum of money each year to fund projects is in itself a successful gamble. To go further and invest heavily in subjects for the future such as agroecology, we need to change scale. The resource is there: France is the leading European agricultural country, we also have skills and knowledge, yet all this is not very well articulated or structured. We have vital and urgent issues to deal with, we can’t wait five or ten years! That is why we have taken the measure of the scale of the task with an ambitious fund-raising campaign, which is certainly relevant. As proof of this, the announcement of this fund-raising campaign has provoked many very positive and enthusiastic reactions from numerous collaborators and partners.

O.G: Although we are a large agricultural country, it is important to remember that every year, farmers face increasingly severe and frequent difficulties, which often threaten their crops and have a significant impact on their livelihoods. These difficulties are very often directly linked to climate change (droughts, floods, etc.). The urgency is there: we need to find a model that is both resilient and productive, and agroecology is a gamble that has proven itself. As its name suggests, it combines agriculture and ecology. We have an important role to play and we are aware of it. At AgroParisTech, it is obviously a subject that is closely monitored and studied, and INRAE has also been working on it for some time. We realize that there are interesting initiatives developing all over our territory, but that the movement has not yet been launched on a large scale. Organic farming certainly exists, but organic farming meets very specific specifications, which leaves little room for innovation and action. Agroecology encompasses a wide range of topics, with numerous and evolving approaches that allow us to think about a field of action and would give us great freedom with associations of several complementary topics.

M.M-D: To achieve this goal, everyone’s support is invaluable. The campaign as such is aimed at individuals and companies, with three possibilities for commitment: one, Innovation and knowledge sharing (€50 million), to create an ambitious agroecology action-research program that can be disseminated on a larger scale; two, the deployment of field initiatives (€40 million) which aims to strengthen the financing of transformative projects and three, still in the continuity of encouraging young project leaders, a section dedicated to supporting talent (€10 million), by offering student grants.

O.G: I would add that companies, which are increasingly aware of the issue, are also being asked to contribute and that it is in their interest to support a program of this kind, which is geared towards the general interest. As the State has limited means to act, it is necessary for us to be able to count on as many donors as possible, whether they are companies or individuals from all walks of life. Everyone, within their means of course, can give!

M.M.D: The Foundation has always been and always will be very “connected” to the school and its stakeholders, which is why we are now taking stock of everything that is already being done within the establishment. We are building on what has already been done to bring initiatives together, learn about them and enable them to connect better with each other. And then, beyond our institution, we need to bring together existing knowledge throughout our territory to better disseminate it. Today, knowledge is too diluted and we need to be able to bring it together to rethink vertical dissemination, from laboratories to the fields, including associations that have real knowledge and experience in the field. Finally, within the Foundation, it should be remembered that many of our “actors” are volunteers, whether they are students or members of the board of directors. We are all mobilized on the subject: it is with the maximum number of actors that we will have the most impact.

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