General Conclusion and New Research Perspectives

The renewed interest shown in agriculture by the international community and national governments since the 2008 crisis has firmly placed agri-chain approaches at the heart of development issues and debates. The challenges of sustainable development compel us to define new arenas and new forms of action – which are now multiplying through standards and other regulatory instruments – and to come up with innovative practices and novel ways of deriving value. The variety of explorations of the links between transformations of tropical agri-chains and sustainable development allows us to conclude this book by synthesizing the lessons learnt about the ability of these agri-chains to act as vectors of development, spaces of regulation, frameworks for innovation, and objects of assessment. The proliferation and renewal of agri-chain transformations calls for further exploration and the identification of research perspectives that can help in this endeavour.