Peri-urban farming: chal­lenges as well as oppor­tu­ni­ties

‘Only battles that are not fought are lost before they start’. This saying fits well when defending peri-urban agri­cul­ture. Judging by media reports, living along­side city dwellers suppos­edly means disputes, street racing or fly-tipping. The reality is more nuanced and in many cases full of oppor­tu­nity, provided farmers engage with public life.

Denis and Nathalie Fumery from Sagy, near Cergy-Pontoise, and their son Philémon, who took over the arable farm last year, demon­strate how their family has fought this battle for 75 years. 

Inse­cu­rity

The Fumery family orig­i­nally came from the Pas-de-Calais region. “In the 1950s, our father was attracted to Ile-de-France region because there were afford­able farms to take over,” recalls Denis.

But the deal did not come without risks, as the rural munic­i­pal­i­ties of Cergy and Pontoise were earmarked for a major new town project, designed to relieve pres­sure on the rapidly expanding Paris conur­ba­tion. The area’s sweeping bend in the Oise River, before it flows into the Seine a few miles further on, made it the ideal site for a ‘land­scape town’. 

“My parents had a large part of our orig­inal farm expro­pri­ated because it was located in the new town,” continues Denis. During construc­tion, the state granted them tempo­rary occu­pancy status. ”This meant that they could continue to culti­vate the land, but the bull­dozers could come in the day before the harvest and a building site could be put on top of the crops,” he adds.

Denis himself had to leave his child­hood farm in nearby Cour­di­manche. ‘I knew I wouldn’t be able to farm my land until retire­ment and that I’d have to move,” he admits.

Yet none of this deterred him. He had learned the need for flex­i­bility and adapt­ability that the situ­a­tion required.

“My father moved easily. So did I, and I did a number of different jobs before settling down at the age of 32”. Farming runs deep in the family, with all six brothers being or still being farmers. Denis and Nathalie have four chil­dren, including Philémon, 34, who took over the farm after studying manage­ment, gaining expe­ri­ence abroad, and completing an advanced voca­tional qual­i­fi­ca­tion in agri­cul­ture at the School of Agri­cul­ture in Angers.

A peri-urban cereal farm

Fearing an ‘Amer­ican-style’ urban expan­sion as the year 2000 approached, local coun­cil­lors signed a charter creating the French Vexin Regional Nature Park, which covers 98 munic­i­pal­i­ties across  Val-d’Oise and Yvelines. The charter tightly restricts devel­op­ment and recog­nises arable land as part of the region’s heritage, a win for farmers. Several neigh­bouring farmers stopped farming and trans­ferred some of their land to Denis. EARL Fumery now spans 220 hectares of well-grouped but highly frag­mented land, with 85 parcels aver­aging 3 hectares each.

Soils range from deep silt to abra­sive sand and fairly good clay-lime­stone soils. After culti­vating up to 40% of his land with spring field peas in the 1990s, Denis had to abandon this lucra­tive crop due to Aphanomyces root rot. Cereals now domi­nate the rota­tion, providing straw that is partly sold to a nearby eques­trian centre. Sugar beet, spring beans, oats and rape­seed complete the crop rota­tion. Cultivation methods remain largely conven­tional, but with an inevitable shortage of future labour as Denis is unable to work as much. Philémon has expressed interest in the bene­fits of conser­va­tion agri­cul­ture.

Commu­ni­ca­tion to de-esca­late the situ­a­tion

The Fumery family faces two recur­ring issues: anti­so­cial behav­iour and a lack of public under­standing. Fly-tipping, once common, now appears to be declining. Damage to farm equip­ment still happens, but they have become savvy about it. “We know how to hide our machines,” says Philémon with a smile. Street racing is more persis­tent. “We’ve had people racing vehi­cles in our fields,” recalls Nathalie Fumery, “And it’s not easy to go and tell them we’re not happy about it.”

Philémon, 34, was able to talk to the people racing to explain that their ‘play­ground’ was farm­land and the result of hours of work. As for public under­standing, Denis puts it simply: ”I take the train between Cergy and Paris quite often for assign­ments I’m given, like during certain agri­cul­tural shows and I’m always struck by the bags of crisps and mass-produced sweets young people eat today. What do they know about farming and locally produced food?”

Asso­ci­a­tion Rencontre Ville-Campagne

Not one to sit back, Denis devotes signif­i­cant time to promoting agri­cul­ture in  Ile-de-France. He is a co-founder of Rencontre Ville-Campagne, an asso­ci­a­tion focused on commu­ni­ca­tion with the general public, espe­cially in schools from primary to univer­sity levels, including ESSEC Busi­ness School. 

“We feel useful because we are listened to. We also have a part­ner­ship with the Seeds and Plants Joint Trade Organ­i­sa­tion, which allows us to offer seeds to school­children.” A memo­rable example came in Easter 2019, when the munic­i­pality of Neuilly-Plai­sance (Seine-Saint-Denis) divided a park into small plots. Denis’ team helped to sow the spring wheat, and fami­lies then tended the crops and later baked bread from their harvest. ”Who knows, some of these chil­dren might be poten­tial future farmers, NIMAs as we say. I’ve already trained a few.” (NIMA means not from a farming back­ground)

Harvesting in Neuilly-Plai­sance, less than 10 miles east of Paris. Denis Fumery advised school­children on sowing spring wheat, and some future farmers among them

Just 15 minutes from the farm, a large eques­trian centre has bought straw from the  Fumery family for 35 years, taking up to 400 tonnes of straw annu­ally. In exchange, Philémon Fumery receives a large quan­tity of horse manure, which he composts  and spreads across 60 hectares each year.

Straw/manure exchange with an eques­trian centre

L’Epinette, an eques­trian centre in Boise­ment, just 15 minutes from Sagy, has collab­o­rated with the Fumery family since 1988. Denis saw the poten­tial early, and L’Epinette has since become one of the area’s most successful riding schools.

In 2001, the two parties formalised a part­ner­ship, and EARL Fumery delivers around 2,000 round bales, or 400 tonnes of straw, every year at harvest time. “We have the baling done by a contractor, who gener­ally gets to work 24 to 48 hours after the harvest”, explains Denis, “And we can even wait a little while when it’s baled before putting together the large pile at the riding school”. Philémon then moves the bales every few days with a tele­han­dler.

In return, the farm receives large quan­ti­ties of horse manure. ‘It’s a very straw-rich waste that needs months of composting or matu­ra­tion before spreading. While the finan­cial stakes remain limited in Philémon’s eyes, he remains posi­tive. “We receive enough of this excel­lent organic fertiliser to cover no fewer than 60 hectares every year”.