Projets agro-énergétiques de territoire dans l’Ouest français : le rôle des agriculteurs-moteurs

Abstract

The implementation of local projects for autonomy (energy and feed) and agricultural short circuits (pure vegetable oil and hedged-farmland wood energy) relies on farmer’s and local official’s initiatives. Autonomy can be considered in relation to the use of local resources and to the involvement of farmers in territorial projects. These projects are part of the European Union Leader program and of a French program for innovation in rural spaces: “centers for rural excellence”(pôles d’excellence rurale). These projects combine different networks of stakeholders answerable to local institutions or cooperatives such as CUMA (French cooperatives for collective use of agricultural equipment) and CIVAM (French organization for the promotion of initiatives in rural and agricultural local development)or others agricultural networks. However, the transition from individual agricultural autonomy to collective action, then to projects for territorial development, points out the role of some local stakeholders. Some farmers who initiated the use of technical tools in local cooperatives play an essential part in interconnecting the agricultural development action with the local territory project. This is due to their socio-territorial entrenchment and to their specific profile as farmers, elected officials or associate managers. The projects for agricultural and local autonomy lead to question the representations of agriculture in relation to its multifunctionality and its socio-territorial dimension.

Keywords

• short circuits
• agricultural autonomy
• territorial development
• farmers-initiators
• environmental services
• stakeholder