In the dairy mountain areas, natural constraints and the end of the quota system are sources of difficulties and challenges for the dairy production. High added value schemes, such as organic farming could help farmers and processors to face these challenges. The “Montagne Bio project”, funded by the French Ministry of Agriculture studied and defined the conditions for the success of this development. We studied dairy farmers’ views on organic production, described farm trajectories before and after conversion, and identified factors that contribute to the success or the failure of a conversion or of a collective development project. We tested and assessed a method to carry out projects for the development of organic farming in rural areas and built tools to support local stakeholders and extensionnists to manage such projects. The collective work in the project team made it possible to use new references by each partner and led to building a common view of farm trajectories and the development of organic food chains
