| The department of Charentes-Maritime has a maritime facade of 440 Km and a surface a rea of 6,383 Km2. The type of soil and the large maritime facade has allowed the development of two different activities: agriculture and shellfish farming. This shellfish farming takes place for a large part in the Marennes-Oléron basin. It regroups the production of oysters (50,000 tons per year) and the production of mussels. The shellfish farming creates 5,000 direct jobs. The agriculture, for its part, is divided into two main activitics: cattle farming and plant production, such as the culture of cereals, oleaginous, wine and other vegetables. The intensive culture induces the farmers to use a lot of pesticides, su ch as insecticides and herbicides in order to comply... |
