Groupe Roullier

65 2021 Non-Financial Reporting Statement Groupe Roullier 64 2021 Non-Financial Reporting Statement Groupe Roullier How corporate philanthropy funds research In addition to its creation and management of the Minerallium, the central mission of the Roullier Endowment Fund is to support socio-economic research into sustainable agriculture through projects in which farmers, solidarity and respect for the environment are all important considerations. The projects supported must be run by non-profit organisations, such as research centres, university research chairs and associations, and address the imperative need for profitability as an essential part of supporting farmers in their commitment to developing their farming practices towards a more virtuous agricultural economy. As a result, support from the Roullier Endowment Fund provides researchers with additional funding for aspects of projects that would otherwise struggle for cash. Decent work & Economic Growth: by promoting research around developing sustainable long-term economic solutions for farmers. Responsible Consumption and Production: by encouraging experiments to develop and assess sustainable agricultural practices that save resources. Climate Action: by supporting scientific initiatives that explore ways of mitigating the carbon impact of the agricultural industry. Life on Land: prioritising support for solutions that are respectful of land, soil and biodiversity in the round. The four new support agreements signed in 2021 are consistent with this commitment: • INRAE (the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment) in the Bourgogne Franche- Comté region covering the compilation of an Atlas of Molecular Soil Fungi that will contribute to research on the diversity and interactions of these molecular fungi from the perspective of farming practices. • The Fermes d’Avenir (Farms of the Future) network for a collaborative project run in conjunction with the Ecological Accounting Chair to experiment with a new form of accounting on 15 farms with differing profiles. The aim of the project is to incorporate the value contributed by natural resources and human capital. • The Senegal Institute of Research for Development (IRD) for the creation of 10 training modules for farmers and their agricultural advisers as part of developing the technique of inoculation, which has yet to become widespread in West Africa. This technique should ensure a significant increase in food crop yields, at the same time as improving the biological life of soils. • The Changes in Agriculture Chair at ESA in Angers, France (see page 65 for more information about this partnership). The corporate philanthropic initiatives run by the Roullier Endowment Fund contribute to four priority SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals): A close partnership with the Ecole Supérieure d’Agriculture (ESA) in Angers In 2021, the Roullier Endowment Fund expanded its partnership with the Changes in Agriculture Chair at ESA (the agricultural graduate school) in Angers. The additional support focuses on a two- year experimental programme to examine how the environmental services provided by farmers and the impact on their income can be quantified and assessed in terms of economic value. This group project comes at a time when agricultural industry and scientific community perspectives are changing. The management of natural resources and theadoptionof offsettingand/ or diversification schemes are increasingly being seen as environmental services and farming activities in their own right, whose real value deserves to be reflected in markets and/or specific channels. The Endowment Fund commitment here is to help in the process of putting a value on these services by supporting, monitoring and publicising the experimental programme. This commitment has already been reflected in the hosting by the Roullier Endowment Fund of the 20 January 2022 ESA Angers conference and workshop session on ‘Payments for environmental services: building new markets between farmers and companies’. COMMITTED TOGETHER FOR REGIONS AND COMMUNITIES COMMITTED TOGETHER FOR REGIONS AND COMMUNITIES