2023-07-30 06:01:00
At the entrance to the town of Ramillies, a dozen new houses bordering the main road are being built. Further down the road, several building plots are looking for takers. One of them is almost in front of a shed in which are parked, somehow, imposing agricultural machinery.
Composed of 80% of land dedicated to agriculture, this rural locality of Walloon Brabant has seen the arrival, over the past ten years in particular, of new inhabitants, mainly from the cities. “We experienced a 12% growth in new inhabitants in 2018”, comments Mireille Benoît, alderman for agriculture since the elections of that year. At the same time, the number of farmers has decreased and their holdings have grown. Today, some 6,500 souls live in Ramillies, including around fifty farmers “only”. Only, because “before, we all had at least one farmer in the family”, continues the city councilor.
Faced with tensions, renewing the dialogue
This demographic change is not without consequences for living together in the municipality. “It often goes to clash”, admits Christian Jadoul, farmer and breeder. “Residents complain about the noise of the machines during the harvest, sometimes at night, and the animals, the dust, the mud, the smell, the spreading, the agricultural machines which slow them down on the road towards the work…, lists Mireille Benoît. They leave the city hoping to find calm, less traffic. But the reality is different from what they expected. They are not always aware of the nuisances inherent in agricultural activity.”
While tensions are clearly felt and dialogue seems non-existent between some – long-time farmers – and others – neo-rurals -, the municipal college (majority REM-Ecolo) decides to set up an agricultural advisory council. -rural (CCAR), in other words, an advisory body on subjects related to agricultural activities in the municipality, and which is at the same time a space for dialogue.
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Eight farmers, four residents and four alternates have been meeting monthly for more than three years. If it was complicated to find volunteers, “we wanted it to be as representative as possible”, comments Mireille Benoît. “The college submits points to them on which it seeks their opinion and expertise”, specifies the mayor Jean-Jacques Mathy. This allows decisions to be made “as close as possible to the realities experienced by everyone”, he continues. “We also benefit from a power of proposal and decide on our agenda”, adds Marianne Parfait, insurance broker who came from Brussels ten years ago and member of the CCAR. Road safety, mobility, road development, maintenance of embankments, measures to counter flooding, pruning, late mowing, so many subjects on which the CCAR issues a joint opinion, the result of a consensus between its members. “Whether we’re talking about late mowing, walking paths or hedges, we manage to find a meeting point so that everyone can find something for themselves”, comments Marianne Parfait.
Before that, “we had to get to know each other and trust each other”, says Christian Jadoul. President of the CCAR, this farmer and son of a farmer must use diplomacy to ensure that points of view are first expressed and then reconciled. “I’m part of a generation of farmers who want to change things and not just ‘do what we’ve always done’,” he says. “If we give our opinion, no mandate has been given to us by the farmers of Ramillies”, he tempers however. He wishes to use his role to make known and understand the “oldest profession in the world” in order to ease tensions and recreate the link with these inhabitants whom they nourish. The CCAR, supported by local elected officials, facilitates the taking of initiatives in this direction. A “charter of living well together” clarifying everyone’s rights and duties was the first step.
Need to explain and understand
”When people see me with my sprayer, even if it does not contain anything harmful, I feel that it is not accepted; when I put slurry on the crops, people are disturbed… But I don’t do it to annoy them: spreading chemical fertiliser, it wouldn’t smell, but it would be much more harmful,” says Christian Jadoul. “Farmers are well aware of the nuisance they cause,” adds Marianne Parfait.
Faced with “such a lack of information and such a disconnection with (our) world”, the CCAR organized an “open crops” day during which farmers encouraged the meeting by opening the doors of their farms, explaining their profession and graciously accepting the “prickly” though “relevant” questions about farming practices that some locals threw back at them.
Didactic panels have been installed near the crops for the inhabitants of the municipality of Ramillies. ©DR
On the sidelines of this initiative, didactic panels have been installed around certain fields. “Residents don’t always understand the farming profession very well,” explains Marianne Parfait. Reason why we need someone to explain it to us. Understanding makes it possible to deconstruct the a priori and then, we are more inclined to accept.
The CCAR wishes to go further and make children aware of the agricultural world in which they grow up. “We still have to find a way for this to fit into the school curriculum”, specifies Christian Jadoul, however.
CCAR members realize that change takes time. To do this, “the will is obviously that the CCAR continues beyond the legislature”, punctuates the mayor.
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