De la recherche sur les décisions des agriculteurs à la formation économique des agriculteurs

This article deals with the links which take place between action/research on the economic behaviour of farmers and their economic training. Firstly, the author presents the principal results of the research which he has been carrying over the last ten years on farmers' decision making, based on the consistency postulate (« f amers have good reasons to do what they are doing »), on the concepts of project, of situation, of perception and adaptation. Then, he reports an experience of action research conducted over three years on a group of farmers and their spouses, therefrom he derives lessons about theoretical and pratical problems which arise when farmers themselves are a part of the research undertaking : Inside the research effort on farmer's decision making, there is simultaneously an act of training of the farmers group and this act is in the same time the condition to get their participation. The action of training consists of the round-about way proposed to farmers : the building of a model (i. e. an image) of their farm, then the confrontation to reality leads to a better analysis of their situation and to a clarification of their project allowing to set up their problems in different terms and to make easier their solution. The author makes a plea for the generalisation of such groups as privileged places for research, in spite of emphasized difficulties.