Territorialisation: Rebirth or Death of Agriculture in Rural Policies?

From the middle of the 90's territories built around a project and called the “territoires de projet” such as the “pays”, the “Parcs Naturels Regionaux”, the LEADER or the “communautes d'agglomeration” appeared in French rural areas. They become a relevant level where policies can be implemented in a context of devolution and less state-directed policies. These territories have learnt to think and build up programmes in different sectors such as environment, heritage, and tourism and so on. We call this process territorialisation. Not only does it show a change in the policy making level but it also calls for a renewal of the references and frames on which policies are based. Among other characteristics we can mention crossed sectors, openings and makeovers of usual policy networks and ways of governance. While we observe the decline of the agricultural sector and the rising of multifunctional uses of rural spaces, more and more territories show interest in agriculture and they support it. Do we observe here a resurgence of an agricultural government on rural spaces and productive uses of resources ? Or do we face a reconfiguration of agriculture where the primary concern is no longer the production but the contribution that agriculture makes to landscape preservation, biodiversity or rural heritage ? From there we will focus on the actors (their motivations, their references and knowledge they call up) and networks who are moved by the inscription of agriculture on the territorial agenda. It appears that agriculture in rural policies is now mainly defined by non-agricultural actors. This reflection will be led from cases studied in Rhone-Alpes Region. If many researches focused on the re-localization of agriculture, only a few dealt with the meaning of agriculture for territories. This communication will try to add to the understanding of this phenomenon.