Différences de profil environnemental entre les éleveurs laitiers wallons et québécois

Abstract

Climate change and environmental disturbances represent one of the major challenges of the 21st century. This master’s thesis deals with the theme of the environmental commitment of dairy farmers in the Walloon Region of Belgium. The objectives of this work are to measure the propensity of these producers to implement initiatives beneficial to the environment, to characterize these producers, to identify the obstacles and motivations to this implementation of initiatives beneficial to the environment, to study the dairy farmers‘ quality of life and their vision of the ideal farm in relation to this commitment. In order to highlight the potential impact of the production context, this commitment was compared with dairy producers coming from Quebec Region in Canada. Thus, 183 and 62 Walloon and Quebec dairy producers responded to a survey in 2019 and 2020, devoted in particular to the place of the environment on the farm. Different environmental profiles of dairy producers were created using a numerical classification coupled with a multiple correspondence analysis. The Walloon producers were grouped in 5 profiles defined on the basis of 18 survey questions: producers implementing initiatives of the "Agri-environmental measures" type (n=15), the "Technology-based facilities" type (n=36), or both types (n=32), Walloon dairy producers who plan to implement initiatives that are beneficial to the environment (n=46), and producers who, at the opposite, are not interested (n=54). The first 3 profiles concerned fairly young producers, more susceptible to produce organically. At the same time, the latter felt their quality of life was better than the one of the other groups. Producers considering implementing such initiatives identified the low income from milk production as a barrier to the implementation of environmental actions. They felt that their quality of life was quite poor. In order to compare the 2 geographic situations and to observe the effect of different agricultural policies on commitment to the environment, Quebec dairy producers were assigned to these 5 profiles. They seemed to be less willing to implement actions beneficial to the environment as 64.5% of them are not interested in such initiatives. Some differences were observed between Wallonia and Quebec in terms of environmental initiatives within the dairy production sector. These can be explained by differences in the production context, and particularly by the agricultural policies in effect. In conclusion, this work showed the possibility of measuring the propensity of dairy producers to implement initiatives that are beneficial to the environment, thanks to different profiles of dairy producers. Currently, 45.3% of Walloon dairy farmers have already implemented such initiatives and 25.1% are willing to consider doing so. The characterisation and study of the obstacles and motivations to the implementation of environmental initiatives, as well as the quality of life of dairy farmers and their vision of the future could be studied.