Farmers' motivations according to a survey of direct sellers in Brittany[Les motivations des agriculteurs d'après une enquête auprès de vendeurs directs en Bretagne]

The use of direct distribution of agricultural products is, in most of the cases in France, initiated by producers. The few experiments led by groups of consummers were limited, until now, to organic products. The recent expansion of consummers networks (AMAP) based on the japanese experience of Teikei (Ikegami, 2005) brings out new explanations to the growing success of direct distribution. However, the farmer's motivation remains the starting point for these initiatives in Brittany. The focus of this paper is to describe these motivations considering the expectations of a growing part of the population.The analysis conducted by Matthieu Anasaloni (chapter 8) on the motivations propounded by consummers met in Guichen annual organic agriculture exhibition shows three main categories: country-style nostalgia, contemporary hedonism and (micro-) political involvements. The objective of this paper is to understand how producers try to answer these expectations through direct distribution. Thus, the producer's motivations can be understood as direct answers to these needs : 1. coming back to traditional agriculture, 2. catching market opportunities and 3. a political reaction to intensive production processes. Based on the answers of 38 producers in Brittany who use direct distribution, this paper proposes to confront these assumptions to the reality of the process that leads a growing number of farmers to choose this short and alternative relation with the public.We can first set aside the first assumption. Some traditional values of agriculture are not necessary incompatible with a modern production process: promoting quality can be achieved considering recent norms and the relationships can be convivial even over the neighbourhood. If nostalgia does exist in the mind of a category of consummers, we do not consider that producers who learnt their activity in a context of a centralized agriculture take that nostalgia into account in their approach.The second class of motivation seems to be more relevant in the light of the answers given for our survey. The search for added value is the main reason for farmers to adopt direct distribution. But this assertion must take the size of farms into account: small farms can use direct distribution to balance the lack of economies of scale and large ones use short tracks in response to cyclical or sectorial shocks. However the producer's wish to extract his activity from the standard production with that kind of differenciation does not seem so obvious. We can enlarge the possible opportunities given by direct distribution by considering the adaptation of the activity to the familial structure and the search for contact as the will to give value to a special skill. Once more, these opportunities can not explain by themselves the pace of the producers. Most of the producers live in couple, but the fact to be in couple is not significantly determinant in the choice. A skill given by an past experience requiring contact with a public can be a source of motivation, but we observe that this category of producer is not more likely to invest itself in selling tasks. The farmers's wish to be in contact with the consummers and with the public finds its source in a need for recognition of agriculture as a whole and not only for differenciation on the part of one single farm. Most of these opportunities are taken into account by producers in accordance with each attribute. But in most of the cases, the economics and rational explanations show their limits. Thus, it seems also necessary to consider direct distribution as a critical reaction to the socio- economic context and as an evolution of agricultural practices.A global view of the deep motivations of the producers we met shows a divide between trying to improve the image of agriculture and searching for an alternative of the productivist agriculture. If the first class tend toward a perspective of sustained development – an attitude that can take a concrete form in the landscape practices or in the contractaul engagements (CTE, CAD) - the other one comprehend direct distribution as a break with the existing model. But all of the producers consider direct distribution as a gain of autonomy. This autonomy has a important cost in time, work and avalaibility. This important cost confirms the need for farmers to believe more in their own convictions than in an invividual rationality.