Page 43 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

10 1 Unique, Multi-generational Development: A Lesson in Forward Planning

Fig. 1.7 Mechanised harvesting at the beginning of the 1960s

every part of the region to a similar extent. Farmers could plough more thoroughly
and use mineral fertilisers everywhere, which are more effective than organic
amendments for the chalk lands of Champagne.
These more modern techniques (c.f. Fig. 1.7) led to chalk land being put into use
once more. It reacted immediately to the care that was lavished on it. The cleared
land was quickly planted with rapeseed and then cereals. Sugar beet finally
appeared in central and southern Champagne. The amount of land in the region
planted with sugar beet tripled between 1945 (10,000 ha) and 1952 (30,000 ha)
thanks to its reputation for quality and high yield. In the Chalk Champagne region,
the modernisation of agriculture between 1956 and 1980 resulted in a 500 %
increase in the profitability of its farms, and three times lower labour costs.
By the middle of the 1960s, Champagne was finally equipped with an intensive
well-structured production system, identical to those in the great arable region of
the Paris basin that had always been fertile. Agricultural yields skyrocketed,
demonstrating that the farmers of Champagne had succeeded in transforming
their initial handicap, the chalk soil, into a strength, thanks to their constant search
for innovative solutions.