N° ISBN - 978-2-7380-1284-5International audienceThe paper focuses on the temporality of farmer innovations in their forage systems having regards to the territorial dynamics. The results show that the innovation process towards sustainable development occurs in two main stages in which multi-actor networks at territorial level are differently activated. First, between 1992 and 2000, in a changing territorial context characterized by the arrival of new people and the emergence of the environmental issues, a few farmers experiment new production modes in their farm systems activating their personal networks, mainly out of territorial level. They act for various reasons, but the “routines exit” to anticipate a potential crisis is dominant. But, since 2000, while the grass fodder systems become a topic of debate and negotiation between farmers, residents, local governments, and different collective organizations, more and more farmers are concerned and question their fodder practices. At this stage, the innovation takes place in a collective territorial dynamic, in which the priority of the different stakes is discussed (individual efficiency constraints, local and global solidarities, the rural landscape identity of the region, etc.). Thus, this article shows out that multi-actor processes are activated for this example only in a second phase of collective appropriation of solutions experimented by a few farmers, in a “social transaction” on agricultural practices
