2012/01/01 by B. Paris, Paris, Benoît, O. Nicolas +11
Business, Management and Accounting · #Global trade, sustainability, and social impact
paper · doi:10.17180/4pds-mg36
In the context of increasing cost of fossil energies and growing interest for renewable energies in agriculture, the reduction of energy production costs for greenhouse heating can help in maintaining a competitive horticultural profession in the Alpes-Maritimes department. Thanks to the local forest cover and the willingness of the local forest communities to develop a wood supply chain for energy trade, the project led by ASTREDHOR, La COFOR 06, le CRPF and FDCUMA, and managed by the Alpes- Maritimes’ Chambre d’agriculture made it possible (i) to provide training to woodland farmers on the production of wood chip, (ii) to provide training and support to flower producers in the analysis of their energy needs, (iii) to build a pilot project using wood chip to heat greenhouses at the Chambre d’agriculture test Centre (ASTREDHOR, Technical Institute for Horticulture). However, relatively high investment costs, coupled with small size of the horticultural farms and the poor organisation of the wood chip trade, presently hinder the economic development of this energy for use in greenhouse heating on the Alpes-Maritimes department.