Income dynamics of agricultural biogas production: a value chain analysis[Une analyse de filière des dynamiques de revenus de la méthanisation agricole]

This article presents the main results of the Métha'revenus research project, funded by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and commissioned in 2019 to the Ladyss laboratory (CNRS). It adopts an institutionalist approach, known as a 'value chain' approach, to account for the income dynamics of agricultural biogas production in France. It distinguishes between two periods: the emergence of agricultural biogas production, driven by pioneering farmers and supported by public policies from the 2000s onwards; and the development of the sector, marked by an increase in the number of intermediaries, by a logic of optimising methanogenic power and greater competition between farmers on the one hand, and between farmers and industrialists on the other after 2015. Our results show a diversity of ways of generating income from agricultural biogas production in France. We also show that this sector is currently undergoing a process of industrialisation and expansion - in the sense of an increase in the number of segments and therefore of players. This dynamic is reflected in the fact that it is more difficult for some farmers to earn an income from this non-farming activity, particularly for those located upstream in the chain. It is not certain that farmers remain dominant players in anaerobic digestion and earn a significant income from it in the future.