The maintenance of family farms in mountain areas constitutes a serious challenge in the context of globalization. European mountain agriculture faces significant natural constraints and cannot follow the same development path as agriculture in the plains. The study reported here sought to analyze recent changes in mountain family dairy farming in the Vercors (Alpine uplands with urban and tourism development) and characterize the diversity of family farm development trajectories. We developed an analytical framework that allowed us, based on individual data from the National Census of Agriculture for 1988, 2000, and 2010 and semistructured interviews in farms, to capture and analyze patterns of change on family dairy farms between 2000 and 2010 and to link changes in farming systems and farming family organizations. Our results show a drop in the number of dairy farms and changes to their organization. This article discusses the different strategies adopted by dairy families, which are based on different adaptive resources.

Structures d'exploitation et exercice de l'activité agricole Évolutions des formes d'exercice de l'activité agricole Quelles spécificités en montagne ?

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