UNdeRSTaNDING THe CHANGES UNdeRWAY ANd PUTTING PROGRESS INTO AcTIoN Agricultural value chains are facing unprecedented challenges: climate change, market shifts, and evolving societal expectations. To respond to these profound transformations, we favor a systemic, innovative approach within an open ecosystem that leverages all our expertise. 1. Groupe d’études et de recherches sur les mutations de l’entreprise agricole (Research Group on Transformations in Agricultural Enterprises). With support from Toulouse Midi- Pyrénées federal university, it is coordinated by Toulouse INP-ENSAT and sponsored by three cooperatives: VIVESCIA, EURALIS, and TERRENA. There is a major challenge in ensuring that public policies take these developments into account. Otherwise, French farms, which in some areas are also becoming less competitive on major international markets, may fail to implement a number of crucial changes. This loss of competitiveness is often linked to our inability to recognize and think through these structural changes.” FRANÇoIS PURSeIGLe Sociologist, author of Une agriculture sans agriculteurs, Professor at AgroToulouse and co-holder of the GERMEA Chair A farm — or rather, a modern agricultural enterprise — now shares many characteristics with companies in other sectors of the economy. In other words, these enterprises develop upstream or downstream through a variety of entrepreneurial strategies.” GENeVIÈVE N'GUYeN Agro-economist, Professor at AgroToulouse and co-holder of the GERMEA Chair VIVESCIA has been a partner of the GERMEA1 chair since its creation in 2021. It is the first teaching and research chair dedicated to transformations in farms and agribusiness. Led by a team of academic researchers from Toulouse INP, the Chair analyzes new forms of organization and their role in reshaping value chains. The originality of the project lies in com- bining perspectives from sociology, economics, and management to shed light on: • the rapid transformation of traditional farms into a wide variety of new enterprises; • emerging forms of employment, roles, workforce management methods, and managerial practices; • how new agricultural enterprises can integrate value chains and regions, locally and globally; • their performance and their capacity to reshape value chains and meet new economic, environmental, and social challenges. François Purseigle and Geneviève Nguyen, co-holders of the GERMEA research chair, presented the results of four years of research at the 2025 Paris International Agricultural Show. Structured and innovative collaborations with the academic world 20