Issues
It is vital to create knowledge that is genuinely useful for the agro-ecological transition of farms, and to support farmers in financing their farm-level research. Biodiversity plays a crucial role in agriculture, contributing to the health of agricultural ecosystems and the sustainability of food systems more broadly. The diversity of plants, animals and micro-organisms helps to maintain soil fertility, pollinate crops, regulate pests naturally and provide resilience in the face of environmental change. Preserving agricultural biodiversity is essential to ensuring global food security and to preserving the natural resources of cultivated soil.
Actions
The ‘Pour une Agriculture du Vivant’ movement brings all stakeholders together through collective action to transform the agricultural model by deploying multiple mechanisms, from the regeneration index to the transformation of industries both upstream and downstream, financing for transition, training, networking and accelerating innovation. By raising awareness, training farmers and lobbying activities, the movement promotes more respectful and responsible farming methods.
Mirova Foundation’s support will enable the project entitled: ‘Recherche-Action à la Ferme’ (‘farm-level action research’) to set up and test a simple, tailored support system for farmers to speed up the emergence of new agro- ecological practices. This support will also contribute to development of the RexAgri tool thanks to field-level data collection.
A project designed around four main actions:
- To structure a network of pioneering agro-environmental farms in France in close collaboration with existing farmer networks. The process aims to identify 200 farms covering all types of production, establish a Regeneration Index for each one and publish feedback (REXAGRI). All of which will be mapped and available in open-source format on the website agroecologie.org.
- Identify and map scientific and technical partners capable of enhancing the robustness of farmers’ experiments, to put them in touch with farmers more easily.
- Create an ‘Farm-level Research Grant’ scheme (operations, partners, funds, governance, etc.) to finance experiments by farmers on their farms, with a first call for projects to be launched in 2025 and financing projects on three farms.
- Capitalise on the knowledge produced (contributions to technical meetings, feedback, publication of scientific articles, etc.) among farmers, technicians, agronomists and scientists, to encourage the transition.
Key figures

Our support
- Multi-year partnership over three years
- Financial support and main sponsor for development of the Farm-Level Action Research project
- Skills sponsorship according to needs as identified by Pour une Agriculture du Vivant
- Outreach and raising awareness