L'état et le statut de l'économie rurale

Agricultural economics is not only a scientific discipline. Faithful to their «agronomic» tradition, born during the 19th century in western countries, agricultural economists can be defined by the use of economics concepts, hypotheses, and methods in the analysis of the problems agriculture, the latter being understood in its broadest meaning. They nevertheless remain full-fledge economists. The Malaga Conference once more emphasized that, within this broad project, agricultural economists are extremely diverse both in terms of their professional objectives and of the way they exert their profession : topics studied, methods used, linkages with the users of their works. This diversity raises evaluation problems for the evaluation of the quality of their works: what are the best criteria of professional excellence? The author pleads in this respect for using four « classical » criteria : internal logical consistency, consistency with experience, clarity and relevance. He pleads also for respecting pluralism and enhancing a great degree of reciprocal tolerance among agricultural economists, as well as for a great degree of rigour in the methods used.