The multifunctionality of agriculture and contractual policies. A comparative analysis of France and the Netherlands

The process of CAP reform has reorientated the development of agriculture, more towards the principles of rural development and agricultural multifunctionality. These transformations have been accompanied by a shift in the principles and tools used by policy-makers, necessary to implement these new orientations. The emergent contractual policies represent a renewal of public intervention in agriculture. This article explores the implementation of these policy instruments in two countries, France and the Netherlands. The content and implementation of these policies differs greatly between the two countries, reflecting their different conceptions of multifunctionality. The Netherlands limited the scope of the policy instrument to nature and landscape protection, while France adopted a wider definition of multifunctionality. These differences are partly explained by the particularities of the national context to which those policies have been applied. France is characterized by an institutionalized system of co-management, in which farmers’ organizations work closely and have a privileged relationship with the state. Although this mode of governance is weakening and becoming vulnerable, it proved to be highly effective during the 1990s and contributed to the adoption of a broad vision of multifunctionality. By contrast, the selective definition of multifunctionality within Dutch policy is partly due to the co-evolution of strong environmentalist sympathies, together with a liberalization of agricultural management. These divergences are perceptible in the policies that were adopted as well as in the configurations of power that were at stake during the policy-making processes.