Development of Soybean in short value chain (Charente, France)

The Chamber of Agriculture of Charente leads a farmers’group which aims to develop non-GMO soybean production in order to eliminate GMOs in animal feed. The project is carried out by the dairy cooperative Sèvre et Belle. Three other partners are part of the project: Alicoop (Deux-Sèvres, France), specialist in animal feed, and two farmer cooperatives, Corea Poitou-Charentes (Vienne, France) and Charentes Alliance (Charente, France). The objective is to cultivate 15,000 ha in the department in the medium term. The experiments should allow verifying the relevance of the soybean crop. There is also a part of research and development: quantity of oil content of the soya meal and quality, extraction of oil and manufacture of the soya meal, economic profitability, etc.

Soybean is an interesting crop because it responds to societal and environmental demands to use fewer pesticides on the one hand (the plant picks up nitrogen) and less water (half as much as corn) on the other hand.