The French experiment of the PDRN : Evaluation and prospects?

Abstract

Based on the main lessons from the evaluation of the National Rural Development Plan 2000-2006, this article aims, initially, at clarifying the explanatory mechanisms of the principal results of this evaluation in order to shed light on the future policies. While the most obvious effects are related to the income of the farmers, in particular in the disadvantaged zones, the environmental impact apparently remains modest. The dependence with the path remained relatively strong from professional and administrative actors, accentuated by the tensions between the sectoral logic of RDR and the systemic logic of the CTE. Although the structure by axis of the FEADER and the choice of partially programming at regional level (originated in the mid-term evaluation) constitute indeniable headways, it remains to check wether and how the desirable evolutions in terms of territorialisation of public action would concretize.