SYAL : UN NOUVEL OUTIL POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT DE TERRITOIRES MARGINAUX. LES LEÇONS DE L'ALLIANCE DES AGRO-INDUSTRIES RURALES DE LA SELVA LACANDONA, CHIAPAS.

Francois Boucher (1) , Denis Requier-Desjardins (2) , Virginie Brun (3)

1 UMR Innovation - Innovation et Développement dans l'Agriculture et l'Agro-alimentaire
2 IEP Toulouse - Sciences Po Toulouse - Institut d'études politiques de Toulouse
3 IICA - Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture [Mexico]

Since its beginnings in the eighties, Rural Agro-Industry (RAI) has emerged as an effective way to fight against poverty in marginalized rural areas, because of its ability to contribute to the overall improvement of small producers' living conditions. This development tool has been completed in the nineties by the Localized Agri-food Systems concept (SYAL in French) and the process of their activation. From the experience of a RAI development project promoted in the Selva Lacandona (Chiapas, Mexico), we present some lessons learned from this development project. One of the principal results was to identify and define the conditions of RAI sustainability in the Selva Lacandona. If economics profitability of the micro-enterprises proved to be essential to ensure their viability, it does not seem central as it doesn't represent a real problem. On the other hand, two aspects appeared to be fundamental to guarantee the RAI sustainable development in such marginalized region: the necessity of a prior favorable environment, in particular trough the presence of functional local public goods, and the resolution of organization and leadership problems.

Mots clés: rural poverty; collective action; Mexico; Local Agri-food Systems

Domaines: Agriculture, économie et politique

Francois Boucher, Denis Requier-Desjardins, Virginie Brun. SYAL : UN NOUVEL OUTIL POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT DE TERRITOIRES MARGINAUX. LES LEÇONS DE L'ALLIANCE DES AGRO-INDUSTRIES RURALES DE LA SELVA LACANDONA, CHIAPAS.. ISDA 2010, Jun 2010, Montpellier, France. 12 p. ⟨hal-00521013⟩