M Bruno

M Thierry

M Me

Joëlle Fustec

M Emmanuel Geoffriau

M Etienne Josien

Vetagro Sup

Lempdes

Inrae, Saint- Vincent Mercier

Marcel -Lès-Valence

M Pascal Bergeret

Ciheam M Philippe Hintzinger

Inrae M Jean

Paul Laclau

Cirad M Me

Carole Sinfort

MEMBRES DU COMITÉ D'EXPERTS

Keywords:

Les données chiffrées présentées dans les tableaux de ce document sont extraites des fichiers déposés par la tutelle déposante au nom de l'unité.

L'UMR ABSys ambitionne de produire des connaissances scientifiques et des outils pour être moteur, avec l'ensemble des acteurs, de la transition agroécologique des systèmes de culture à base de pérennes dans des contextes de production méditerranéens et tropicaux.

Les grandes thématiques fédératrices se retrouvent dans les axes d'animations scientifiques, à savoir, les relations entre agrobiodiversité fonctionnelle et les services écosystémiques, la compréhension des mécanismes au sein du continuum sol-plantes en réponse aux pratiques, l'évaluation multicritères au service de la conception de systèmes agro-écologiques, ou encore l'intégration de la dynamique dans les approches de conception de systèmes de culture et des systèmes de production. ABSYS s'inscrit pleinement dans le site académique montpelliérain sur lequel elle doit pouvoir s'appuyer, tout particulièrement sur l'I-Site MUSE qui offre une opportunité remarquable de développement de travaux et de visibilité des thématiques de l'unité.

EFFECTIFS DE L'UNITÉ

L'UMR System présente une très bonne production scientifique, voire excellente sur le plan qualitatif, tandis que la production de l'UPR Système de Pérennes est relativement plus modeste, mais en quelque sorte compensée par une forte activité d'expertise et une solide reconnaissance à ce niveau. La fusion de ces deux unités apparaît stratégiquement positive et scientifiquement pertinente.

Le projet de l'unité ABSys a pour objectif la production de connaissances et d'outils sur les systèmes de culture plurispécifiques incluant des espèces pérennes en milieux méditerranéen et tropical. Les zones d'études ainsi que le contexte économique renvoient à des problématiques telles que la gestion de la ressource en eau, la résilience des exploitations (petits producteurs ou fermes industrielles), la biodiversité et la fertilité du sol et la limitation des intrants.

Ces objectifs paraissent très pertinents au regard, à la fois, des enjeux liés aux relations Nord-Sud (et particulièrement Europe Afrique) et aux nécessaires compromis à trouver entre production agricole et maintien de la biodiversité, dans le contexte du changement climatique.

Toutefois, un point de vigilance doit être porté sur le fait que ABSys déploie une partie de son activité sur des systèmes de production qui font l'objet de controverses importantes, à savoir les productions industrielles d'huile de palme et de latex d'hévéa. Autant il est important qu'un regard scientifique et indépendant puisse être porté sur ces systèmes ; autant cette position, qui inclue des mises en situation d'expertise (et donc d'exposition), exige une réelle solidité des analyses et de grandes capacités de gestion de la communication.

Dans ce contexte de fusion et d'inter-complémentarité à plusieurs niveaux, l'organisation et la vie de l'UMR sont au coeur de la réussite de ce projet qui présente un très gros potentiel à condition de parvenir à une vraie synergie. Passer de l'association à la symbiose, puis de la symbiose à une nouvelle entité est le défi de ce nouveau collectif -et de sa direction -pour les cinq années à venir.

Parallèlement, il parait important que l'unité ait un siège clairement identifié, avant même le déménagement envisagé à l'horizon de quelques années.

  Pour le Hcéres 1 : Au nom du comité d'experts 2 : Nelly Dupin, Présidente par intérim Thierry Tatoni, Président du comité d'experts En vertu du décret n°2014-1365 du 14 novembre 2014 : 1 Le président du Hcéres "contresigne les rapports d'évaluation établis par les comités d'experts et signés par leur président". (Article 8, alinéa 5) ; 2 Les rapports d'évaluation "sont signés par le président du comité". (Article 11, alinéa 2). INTRODUCTION HISTORIQUE, LOCALISATION GÉOGRAPHIQUE ET ÉCOSYSTÈME DE RECHERCHE Le projet d'Unité Mixte de Recherche Agrosystèmes Biodiversifiés (UMR ABSys) consiste à fusionner deux unités de recherche travaillant dans le domaine de l'agronomie des systèmes de culture à base d'espèces pérennes : l'Unité Propre de Recherche « Performance des Systèmes de Culture des Plantes Pérennes » (UPR Systèmes de Pérennes) du Cirad et l'Unité Mixte de Recherche « Fonctionnement et conduite des systèmes de culture tropicaux et méditerranéens » (UMR System) rattachée à l'Inrae, au Cirad, à Montpellier SupAgro et au Ciheam-IAMM. Ces deux unités sont localisées dans le contexte géographique de l'aire montpelliéraine, plus précisément sur le Campus de la Gaillarde (Montpellier SupAgro) pour l'UMR System et sur le Campus de Lavalette (Centre Cirad de Montpellier) pour l'UMR Systèmes Pérennes. L'UMR ABSys étant un projet de fusion, son historique et son écosystème de recherche ne peuvent s'appréhender qu'à partir des caractéristiques des unités constituantes. L'UMR System a été créée en 2001 par le Cirad, l'Inrae et l'Ensam (aujourd'hui Montpellier SupAgro) ; l'IAMM en est devenu véritablement tutelle à partir de 2015. Elle est intégrée dans l'écosystème de recherche montpelliérain par ses implications dans le LabEx Agro, fédérant 41 unités de recherche, et l'Institut de Convergence Agriculture Numérique (#DigitAg), regroupant 29 unités, ainsi que par sa participation au pôle universitaire constitué par l'I-site MUSE (Montpellier Université d'Excellence). Dans ce dernier cadre, l'UMR System est impliquée dans la Key Initiative « Vine & Wine » au travers de la mise en place d'un observatoire de la compétitivité de la viticulture, en partenariat avec l'IGP Pays d'Oc. L'UPR Systèmes de Pérennes a été créée en janvier 2005, au moment de la restructuration du Cirad en unités de recherche. Elle est rattachée au Département Persyst (Performance des Systèmes de Production et Transformation Tropicaux), mais collabore régulièrement avec les unités du département BIOS (Système biologique) et celles du département ES (Environnement et Sociétés). Elle a joué un rôle important dans le chantier « filières et développement durable » que le Cirad a mis en exergue dans son document d'orientation scientifique stratégique lors du quinquennat. Son implication au sud s'effectue majoritairement en Thaïlande, premier producteur mondial de caoutchouc naturel, et en Indonésie, premier producteur mondial d'huile de palme et deuxième producteur mondial de caoutchouc naturel. Au-delà de ces 2 pays, l'UPR Systèmes de Pérennes développe des projets autour de l'Hévéa ou du palmier à huile dans plusieurs états d'Amérique latine, au Cambodge, au Vietnam, en Malaisie, au Bénin et en Côte d'Ivoire. DIRECTION DE L'UNITÉ UMR System contrat actuel : Directeur M. Christian GARY UPR Systèmes de Pérennes contrat actuel : Directeur M. Eric GOHET Pour le projet d'UMR ABSys : Directeur M. Bruno RAPIDEL assisté d'un Directeur adjoint M. Pierre-Eric LAURI. NOMENCLATURE HCÉRES SVE1_3 : Biotechnologies, sciences environnementales, biologie synthétique, agronomie THÉMATIQUES DE L'UNITÉ L'objectif global, autour duquel se retrouvent les deux unités, consiste à accompagner la transition écologique des agrosystèmes structurés autour des plantes pérennes, suivant une démarche scientifique centrale relevant de l'agronomie systémique et de l'agroécologie. Ainsi les agrosystèmes de plantes pérennes correspondent aux objets communs d'étude pour la nouvelle UMR et ils sont appréhendés dans une large gamme d'environnements méditerranéens et tropicaux.L'orientation scientifique générale est basée sur l'hypothèse que la biodiversité dans les agrosystèmes est une clé de la transition agroécologique et notamment que la plurispécificité végétale est un levier majeur de l'intensification écologique des systèmes de cultures pérennes.

projet (2021-2025

Évaluation des coordinations territoriales Évaluation des établissements Évaluation de la recherche Évaluation des écoles doctorales Évaluation des formations Évaluation et accréditation internationales


domain: sdv shs

text:
Pascale Scheromm
email: pascale.scheromm@inra.fr

Coline Perrin

Françoise Jarrige

Lucette Laurens

Brigitte Nougaredes

Claire Ruault

From neglect to commitment: how do French periurban municipalities deal with agriculture?

Keywords: municipal policies, farmland, urban planning, agriculture, elected representatives, France

Agriculture is given consideration in most periurban municipal policies

Introduction

Urban growth leads to farmland conversion [START_REF] Bryant | Agriculture in the city's countryside[END_REF], a trend observed worldwide [START_REF] Bren D'amour | Future urban land expansion and implications for global croplands[END_REF]: for instance in Europe (EEA, 2006), the United States (Alig et al., 2004;[START_REF] Bengston | Public policies for managing urban growth and protecting open space: policy instruments and lessons learned in the United States[END_REF], Australia [START_REF] Houston | Re-valuing the fringe: some findings on the value of agricultural production in Australia's peri-urban regions[END_REF], or China [START_REF] Lichtenberg | Assessing farmland protection policy in China[END_REF]. It has a particularly negative impact on periurban areas, heightened by land speculation [START_REF] Lopez | The effects of suburbanization on agriculture[END_REF], farmers' disengagement [START_REF] Inwood | Farm persistence and adaptation at the rural-urban interface: Succession and farm adjustment[END_REF] and the problems encountered in establishing a farm [START_REF] Germain | Les agriculteurs face à l'urbanisation II. Garantir la pérennité des exploitations[END_REF][START_REF] Horst | Land access for direct market food farmers in Oregon, USA[END_REF].

Urban growth has profoundly changed the relationship between city and countryside. In the case of France, [START_REF] Vanier | La relation ville/campagne excédée par la périurbanisation[END_REF] distinguishes three periods between the 1950s and the present. From 1950 to the 1970s, the countryside was primarily conceived as a productive area providing cities with food products and labour. This viewpoint legitimised urban growth: it justified the creation of new towns, as well as land expropriation and the relocation of farms farther from urban areas. From the 1970s, a new consumption relationship emerged between city and countryside: the countryside gradually became less valued for its productive function and more for its residential function. The periurban trend put agricultural spaces under pressure. The third period, beginning in the 1990s, is that of the transaction. The processes known as metropolization that exist when cities cannot expand beyond their limits, and demands for space inside them grow, tend to make the boundaries between the urban and the rural more porous. These dynamics, observed in France, operate in other countries too: [START_REF] Westlund | Urban-Rural Relations in the Post-Urban World[END_REF] hence postulates a dissolution of the urban-rural dichotomy in the post-urban world. Metropolization has transformed relationships among the city, agriculture, food, and rural life. As cities continue to expand, agriculture and food are becoming urban issues. In the new context of vast city-regions, agricultural areas are valued as components of the sustainability of urban systems and, as such, are progressively integrated into urban planning and policies. Over the past two decades, against a background of food crises and the sustainability paradigm, food and agriculture have emerged as strategic issues for local development (Morgan, 2009).

To examine this matter further, we looked at urban development actions involving agriculture at the local level. The case of France is illustrative because at the local level, public policies encourage actors to combine urban, environmental, and agricultural development, and to take a sustainable development perspective. After gradual decentralisation in the 1970s [START_REF] Pinson | State restructuring and decentralisation dynamics in France: politics is the driving force[END_REF], urban planning powers were transferred to municipalities in 1983. The municipality thus became the main public local planning authority under a unified national law. But this municipal level of planning failed to curb the urban sprawl. Local authorities found themselves subject to pressure from landowners and developers speculating on the conversion of farmland [START_REF] Castel | De l'étalement urbain à l'émiettement urbain. Deux tiers des maisons construites en diffus[END_REF][START_REF] Renard | L'urbanisme et le foncier. La déconnexion entre le spatial et la finance[END_REF]. Local zoning plans were subject to variance, re-zoning, special exceptions, and conditional uses [START_REF] Martin | Les documents d'urbanisme, un outil pour la régulation des conflits d'usage de l'espace agricole périurbain ?[END_REF][START_REF] Peltier | Agriculture et projet urbain durables en périurbain : la nécessité d'un réel changement de paradigme[END_REF]Perrin, 2013a). Aware of this trend, the State passed a law in 1999 intended to encourage municipalities to federate into public intermunicipal bodies to jointly manage services such as transport or urban planning. A new planning law (SRU law on solidarity and urban renewal, 2000) stipulated that the municipal urban development zoning plans called PLU (Plans Locaux d'Urbanisme) had to reduce farmland consumption and increase urban density. To frame these PLU, the SRU law required the elaboration of intermunicipal masterplans called SCoT (Schémas de Cohérence Territoriale). However, although these intermunicipal masterplans have sometimes enhanced the integration of agriculture in urban planning [START_REF] Jarrige | La prise en compte de l'agriculture dans les nouveaux projets de territoires urbains. Exemple d'une recherche en partenariat avec la Communauté d'Agglomération de Montpellier[END_REF], the urban fringe continues to encroach on farmland. Urban stakeholders often instrumentalise agricultural land protection to achieve other urban goals (Barthès & Betrand, 2016;[START_REF] Loudiyi | Le SCoT, instrument de gouvernance territoriale? La conduite locale de la concertation dans le Pays du Grand Clermont[END_REF][START_REF] Perrin | Governance changes in peri-urban farmland protection following decentralisation: A comparison between Montpellier (France) and Rome (Italy)[END_REF]Poulot, 2014a). In the 2010s, agriculture and food issues began to appear on local political agendas. Although such issues had long been considered as outside their fields of competence, local authorities gradually began to engage in food and agricultural strategies (Billion, 2017;[START_REF] Bricas | Croiser enjeux de durabilité et leviers politiques urbaines[END_REF][START_REF] Lardon | Agriculture et alimentation urbaines: entre politiques publiques et initiatives locales[END_REF]. Some periurban municipal governments built strategies to protect farmland (Perrin, 2013b(Perrin, , 2013c)), and some even developed innovative local agriculture and/or food policies [START_REF] Margetic | La politique de reconquête des friches agricoles dans l'agglomération nantaise[END_REF][START_REF] Perrin | La gouvernance du foncier agricole périurbain : entre planification urbaine et projets de développement[END_REF]Poulot, 2014b). Others, however, did not follow this new policy direction.

Our paper explores why, how, and to what extent periurban municipalities integrate agricultural issues into their policies. Municipalities are public authorities key to preserving agriculture on the urban fringe: they determine land use and housing policies at the local level [START_REF] Jarrige | Urban Governance and Housing Affordability: A Trans-Atlantic Comparison[END_REF]. Why do some municipalities support agriculture while others do not? Do specific factors make it possible to predict how agriculture will be integrated into periurban municipal policies, among them the municipality's distance from the core city, its rural or urban identity, or the intermunicipal agricultural and food policy?

To assess the weight given to agriculture in municipal policies, we compared 24 periurban municipalities from the same city-region of Montpellier (France), whose rapid population growth since 1960 has been fuelled by positive net migration. We analysed municipal urban planning documents and conducted in-depth interviews with local elected representatives. Our study reveals a high level of congruence between these two sources of information. It shows diverse degrees of municipal commitment to agriculture that range from neglecting it to strongly supporting it, and the existence of diverse issues that are associated with agriculture and depend on local context and concerns. These results are discussed in relation to each municipality's geographical location (distance to the city), identity (urban, rural, periurban), and intermunicipal planning context.

Study area and method

Our study examines 24 municipalities belonging to the city-region of Montpellier, situated on the French Mediterranean Coast. We chose these municipalities because of their diverse geographical locations, identities and intermunicipal planning contexts. The city-region of Montpellier has a population of 460,000, which has tripled since 1960. While Montpellier, the seventh largest French city, has 260,000 inhabitants, secondary historic towns continue to play a structuring role, and small periurban localities have boomed in the last four decades.

Individual housing tracts spreading out from the cores of suburban villages have replaced the former vineyards [START_REF] Jarrige | The Montpellier Agglomération new approaches for territorial coordination in the periurban[END_REF].

Studied municipalities have different degrees of urbanisation and populations ranging from 427 to 25,178 inhabitants. Some are situated within the first periurban belt of Montpellier city, while others are more distant (figure 1). All the municipalities increased their populations between 1999 and 2014 (figure 2). The most distant municipalities, those situated more than 15 kilometres from Montpellier are, rather, the least populated, except for Castries, Clermont l'Hérault, Gignac, Lunel, and Saint André-de-Sangonis, which are small secondary towns. The municipalities belong to different intermunicipal bodies (cf. Table 1). Municipalities The PLU enables the process of urbanisation. It consists of a set of documents related to strategic orientation, zoning, and regulations. We focused on the Sustainable Planning and Development Project (Projet d'Aménagement et de Développement Durable, PADD), which presents a general orientation structured in several thematic sections presenting the major objectives of the municipal policy. It is considered a reference document for local political priorities at the time of its approval. We searched for the word roots "agr", "rur", "viti" in the text of each municipality's PADD as indicating words related to agriculture in French ("agriculture", "agricole", "rural", "viticulture", "viticole"). This system enabled us to highlight excerpts from documents to be analysed in more detail, thereby shedding light on issues related to agriculture and constructing a typology of municipalities with respect to agriculture. For each PADD, we classified excerpts according to four criteria: (i) main objectives of the PADD, if the excerpt corresponded to titles of sections or subsections of the document, (ii) issues related to agriculture and farmland, (iii) actions concerning agriculture, (iv) municipal identity: rural, periurban, or urban. This text analysis was to identify the presence or absence and the extent and diversity of agricultural issues in the PADD.

In-depth interviews on the weight given to agriculture in current and past municipal policy were conducted with the elected representatives of the municipalities: the mayor in the smaller municipalities, and the elected representatives in charge of agriculture or, failing that, of the environment or of urban planning in the more urbanised municipalities. The elected representative were informed that the collected data would be used for academic scientific studies. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and then analysed from three angles:

1. the attention paid to agriculture by the elected representatives: how is agriculture described, perceived, understood? What are the agricultural issues mentioned? The data from the PADD analyses and in-depth interviews were then compared to check for congruence and to classify the municipalities in distinct categories reflecting the place that agriculture occupies in municipal policy.

Results

Differing degrees of attention to agriculture in the PADD

Based on the text analysis of the issues identified in the PADD, we classified the 24 municipalities into four categories (cf. Table 1

Category 2. Agriculture as a landscape component of the municipal policy

This category includes 6 municipalities. Three of them are on the outskirts of Montpellier.

The three others are more distant, small secondary towns. These municipalities have a tertiary economy and agriculture is mainly recognised for its contribution to the quality of the local urban environment. In these predominantly urban municipalities, the main role assigned to agriculture under the PADD is to provide landscapes and natural spaces, a "breathing space" within the urban environment. Although historically a productive activity, agriculture has thus been turned into a tertiary and service activity.

Category 3. Agriculture as a multifunctional component of the municipal policy

This category includes 11 municipalities: three located on the outskirts of Montpellier and the others more distant. In these municipalities, all with a wine-producing past, agriculture is still very much a part of the picture, recognised and protected. It is, above all, associated with identity issues, as well as with landscape and economic issues. The PADD excerpt from

Gignac is an example of the intertwined functions associated with agriculture in this category.

"The quality of life in Gignac is largely due to the wine production carried out over a major part of the municipal territory, shaping it into a beautifully cultivated piece of landscape" (PADD 2012, p5). In addition to the landscape function, the economic, identity and social functions of agriculture are also clearly identified: "Agriculture's landscape value should not obscure its economic and social value ... The work of our ancestors must be respected by keeping these lands in agricultural use. The zoning plan will rely on this principle to establish clear urban limits" (PADD 2012, p5). However, the PADD does not mention any concrete action in favour of agriculture. Apart from the secondary historic towns of Lunel and Gignac, all municipalities in this category, even those close to Montpellier, display a rural or periurban identity through their PADD, which distinguishes them from the more urban profiles of category 2. Agriculture is associated with social, economic, and quality-of-life issues.

Category 4. Agriculture as a strategic component of the municipal policy

This last category includes five municipalities. Three of them are on the outskirts of Montpellier and two more distant. Supporting agriculture appears to be a central concern in these municipalities. Agriculture is mentioned in the titles of PADD sections, even in the PADD title itself: for example, in Saint Christol, the PADD is entitled "A wine growers' village to be preserved" (PADD 2013, p1). In Lavérune, one PADD section is called "Responding to the challenges of periurban agriculture via a genuine agricultural project" (PADD 2009, p5). The municipalities belonging to this category mention in their PADD agricultural initiatives. In Grabels, bordering Montpellier, the actions mentioned aim to preserve farmland by designating a 'long-term protected zone giving the farmers long-term land security' (PADD 2012, p5). The PADD also mentions the recent creation of farmers' markets. In Villeveyrac, a rural village farther away from Montpellier, the municipality wants to help farmers who need farm buildings by offering them specific dedicated land: "The municipality will offer viable land plots at an intermediate price, with sufficient surface area for the buildings and equipment necessary for the farm" (PADD 2011, p12)

In three of these municipalities, the agricultural projects are aligned with intermunicipal policy. In Clapiers, the preservation of currently or formerly cultivated lands must 'allow for the implementation of an ambitious project led by the Metropole de Montpellier which seeks to reconcile agricultural functions (local quality products to supply short food supply chains), environmental functions (areas with strong heritage and landscape value, contributing to the preservation of biodiversity and ecological continuity) and social functions (spaces for walks and leisure activities, with recreational and educational functions)' (PADD 2013, p7).

In Lavérune, the municipal project 'has to be compatible with the objectives of the SCoT' to develop an 'integrated plan for the management of agricultural periurban spaces' (PADD 2009, p5, p11). In the Saint Christol PADD, the challenge is 'to favour short food supply chains, in accordance with the SCoT's objectives' (PADD 2015, p4).

Municipalities To sum up, our analysis reveals great diversity in the treatment of agricultural issues at municipal scale. Agricultural issues are ignored or secondary in municipalities in categories 1 and 2. They are taken into greater account in the two other categories, being translated into action plans only by the category 4 municipalities. In these municipalities, municipal agricultural initiatives sometimes resonate with intermunicipal agricultural policies.

Elected representatives and agriculture: from no interest to strong political commitment

Interviews conducted with elected representatives confirm the results of our analysis of the PADDs, shedding light on how agriculture is integrated into municipal policy. Substantial congruence can be established between the PADD issues and those expressed by the elected representatives.

In municipalities in categories 1 and 2, where agriculture is not taken into account or is a landscape component in the PADD, elected representatives do not see agriculture as a priority. In these two categories, elected representatives know the farming communities.

While farmland may occupy a significant part of the municipal territory, agricultural issues are considered less important than urban or environmental issues. We don't perform well on communication, which is first and foremost the producers' fault, because they compete among themselves. We try to help them but it's difficult.

Our work as elected representatives mainly concerns

We handle the marketing of some events. The municipality provides its financial support and some technical support. (Saint Georges d'Orques elected representative)

In contrast, in category 4 municipalities where agriculture is a strategic component in the PADD, elected representatives share a dynamic and assertive vision of local agriculture.

Strategies revealed by the PADD analysis were confirmed and elaborated on in interviews.

Elected representatives give agriculture a principal place in their policies. They sometimes consider that the farmers are not yet taking these issues seriously, and that their responsibilities as elected representatives are to revitalise agriculture.

We want to respond to the challenges of periurban agriculture through a real agricultural plan, through appropriate actions such as the redevelopment of brownfields with diversification of crops, especially olive groves, and market gardening. (Lavérune, elected representative)

Elected representatives from category 4 municipalities are strongly committed to agriculture.

In municipalities bordering Montpellier, such as Grabels and Lavérune, where agriculture is marginal, the mayors' chief objectives are to protect farmland from urbanisation and to boost new agricultural activities. To do so, the municipal governments buy farmland or forbid any new construction in areas zoned agricultural use in the PLUs. Their ambition is to settle new farmers on these areas to supply farmers' markets and school canteens. In Clapiers, we identified a recent policy shift: the elected representatives' position on agriculture changed after the municipality was included in the perimeter of an agricultural park created by the intermunicipal body. The elected representatives now address not only landscape issues related to agriculture, but also issues related to the renewal and development of agriculture on fallow lands, to local food provisioning, and to forest fire prevention.

The municipalities intervene differently in more distant periurban municipalities where agriculture is still thriving. In Villeveyrac, historically a wine-producing municipality, the mayor supported the development of new types of farming (market gardening, extensive livestock) and short food supply chains (CSA, farmers' market) using a Local Agenda 21 plan. In Saint Christol, the municipality and the intermunicipal body have recently built a centre for oenotourism, open to the public and dedicated to introducing and promoting wines and local agricultural traditions. In category 4 municipalities, local agricultural policy resonates with the intermunicipal policy and elected representatives rely on the two administrative levels to consolidate and finance their municipal projects.

In summary, analysis of the interviews confirms the 4 categories emerging from the PADDs and reveals the differences in elected representatives' positions on agriculture.

However, no relationship was found between municipalities' location and the weight given to agriculture in municipal policies (Table 1). There are municipalities both close to and far from Montpellier in all the categories. Some of the municipal governments closest to Montpelliervery urbanized municipalities with few farmers-adopt actions and strategies aimed at agricultural renewal, while others do not. In the same way, distant, less urbanised municipalities where agriculture still thrives may or may not support it. Moreover, some more distant municipalities display an urban identity, while some municipalities close to the core city claim a rural identity. Nor did we find any relationship between belonging to a intermunicipal body and the weight given to agriculture in municipal policies (Table 1).

Members of a given intermunicipal body do not share the same agricultural strategy and may even have quite different policies regarding agriculture.

Discussion and conclusion

We distinguished four categories to consider agricultural issues in municipal policies from our analysis of PADDs, documents establishing policy orientation in the PLU. The distribution of our sample municipalities in these four categories was confirmed by interviews with their elected representatives.

Our results thus show that the PADD offers a sound first proxy to consider how agriculture is accounted for in municipal policy at its date of approval. Without extensive fieldwork and interviews, documentary analysis of the PADD makes it possible to quickly identify the weight given to agriculture compared with other municipal spheres of action such as housing, transportation, environmental protection, or social inclusion. The PADD also reveals local agricultural initiatives ongoing at the date of approval. Thus, it reliably reflects a municipality's position on agriculture, its challenges, and sometimes even its agricultural projects. The analysis of text excerpts selected by word search is a time-saving method to quickly identify which municipalities have a relevant agricultural policy worthy of more thorough analysis based on interviews. However, PADDs are dated documents revised only every 10 or 15 years, and therefore present neither projects planned after the date of a PLU's approval nor projects finished before. They mention only the projects currently underway or already in planning stage. For example, in our investigation, one municipality, St-Géniès-des-Mourgues, had a pioneering agricultural policy strategy to protect agricultural landscapes by imposing the grouping of farm buildings at the edge of the village [START_REF] Nougarèdes | Quelles solutions spatiales pour intégrer l'agriculture dans la ville durable? Le cas des "hameaux agricoles[END_REF].

However, these plots were established between 1990 and 2006, before the approval date of the current PLU (2013) and are consequently not mentioned in the PADD. The view of agriculture and the municipal policy reflected by the PADD is hence limited to the date when the document was drawn up.

Our interviews with elected representatives complement this first analysis and prove useful because they shed light on the role of the municipality in agricultural projects. They are essential for at least two reasons. First, interviews give essential additional information about municipality-driven actions concerning agriculture, their history, and their success. Second, interviews clarify the agricultural and political context, highlighting the motivations and rationales behind a municipality's choosing whether to undertake a dynamic agricultural policy.

Beyond revealing agriculture's multifunctionality [START_REF] Lovell | Multifunctional Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Land Use Planning in the United States[END_REF][START_REF] Renting | Exploring multifunctional agriculture: A review of conceptual approaches and prospects for an integrative transitional framework[END_REF][START_REF] Zasada | Multifunctional peri-urban agriculture -A review of societal demands and the provision of goods and services by farming[END_REF], our study pinpoints the diversity of local agricultural issues depending on the municipality: landscape, environmental, economic, social, identity or food issues. It also shows differences in political orientation (objectives expressed) and in strategies adopted (actions implemented). Some municipalities grant agriculture a principal place in the municipal policy, while others neglect it, concentrating on more urban-centred issues.

Between these two extremes, the elected representatives position themselves on a priority gradient concerning agriculture. Moreover, in the municipalities that make agriculture a issue, two different agricultural strategies are adopted. These seek either to preserve agriculture (for example, by supporting the historical wine "terroirs" through marketing campaigns), or to develop more innovative diversified agriculture (possibly as part of a territorial food relocalisation strategy, supporting short food supply chains, especially breeding, fruits, and vegetables). The choice between these two strategies reflects the difficulty and the complexity of the transition to farming systems that are better connected to urban demand [START_REF] Kerselaers | Prioritising land to be preserved for agriculture: A context-specific value tree[END_REF], raising the question what land needs to be preserved for what agriculture?

The distance from Montpellier is not a factor in how we classified municipalities in distinct categories. This result runs counter to some assertions in the literature. [START_REF] Charmes | On the Residential "Clubbisation" of French Periurban Municipalities[END_REF] and [START_REF] Simard | Canadian Cities in Transition. Local Through Global Perspectives[END_REF] considered that elected representatives of more urbanised municipalities are more likely to advocate for periurban agriculture preservation to prevent the extension of built-up areas. In contrast, elected representatives of more distant periurban municipalities were considered by [START_REF] Logan | Urban Fortunes. The political economy of place[END_REF] as more likely to consider residential development as a driver for growth. Moreover, here municipalities close to the core city may claim a rural identity, although their demography and land-use are very urban:

they are connected by a large transport network, including the tramway, and the large majority of their inhabitants work in Montpellier. Although the traditional urban-rural dichotomy is tending to disappear in the post-urban world [START_REF] Westlund | Urban-Rural Relations in the Post-Urban World[END_REF], some municipalities may display a rural identity to stand out in an urban region.

Nor is the intermunicipal body they belong to a factor in the municipalities' classification in the distinct categories. The intermunicipal SCoTs may stipulate reducing farmland conversion, but local actions aimed at supporting agricultural development depend on the will of the municipal elective representatives. Some mayors, for example, actively participate in the drafting of an agriculture-friendly SCoT while imposing so many regulatory constraints in their municipal PLU that new farmers find it difficult to set up new farms [START_REF] Vitry | Une analyse des apprentissages de gouvernance dans des territoires périurbains[END_REF]. The insights provided by this result are relevant to the current debate over the best level of political decision-making for more effective farmland preservation and agricultural development, in a context of decentralisation where local authorities have gained a lot of room for manoeuvre. The trade-off between restrictive top-down guidelines and local

autonomy is still open to debate in the literature. Some authors fear negative effects stemming from increased municipal autonomy [START_REF] Koomen | Open-Space Preservation in the Netherlands: Planning, Practice and Prospects[END_REF] and believe that the solution lies in a supervisory authority [START_REF] Kline | How Well Has Land-Use Planning Worked under Different Governance Regimes? A Case Study in the Portland, OR-Vancouver[END_REF]. However, [START_REF] Androkovich | British Columbia's agricultural land reserve: Economic, legal and political issues[END_REF] shows that a supervisory commission is also subject to pressure from development interests. Artmann (2014) points out for Bavaria that local autonomy and flexibility (even informal planning strategies) have sometimes led to more effective implementation of farmland preservation policies. Moreover, in France and Italy, the current shift from a top-down land-use management regime to a more decentralised and flexible one has produced multiple decisionmaking authorities and increased the complexity of procedures [START_REF] Perrin | Governance changes in peri-urban farmland protection following decentralisation: A comparison between Montpellier (France) and Rome (Italy)[END_REF].

Depending on the local context, local autonomy may thus attract either criticism or praise for its potential to generate experimentation and innovation in farmland preservation and agricultural development.

By way of conclusion, from a methodological point of view, our study shows that municipal urban planning documents provide a convenient first proxy for evaluating agriculture's weight, and its related issues, in municipal policies. From an analytical point of view, it shows that agriculture is currently a concern for most periurban municipalities, for reasons ranging from landscape, social, economic and quality-of-life to food issues. In our sample of 24, however, only five municipalities present strategies linking agriculture and food issues. These pioneering strategies depend on the political will of elected representatives at both municipal and intermunicipal levels. So, the municipalities prove to be a scale at which there is a political space for agriculture. But they often lack both the technical and the financial resources to carry out their agricultural projects. The trend towards intermunicipal agricultural and food policies could provide more scope and funding for the municipalities to address such issues. Intermunicipal bodies could in future play a strategic role in supporting local agricultural projects, going beyond farmland protection alone. Our results open the way for further research focusing on the agricultural issues emerging at municipal and intermunicipal scales, on the links between these two scales and on how best to coordinate multiple-level decisions.

Notes

1 http://agriculture.gouv.fr/preservation-des-espaces-naturels-agricoles-et-forestiers. Review Engagement Report No. 17076, 2018.

CGAAER

Figure 1 .

 1 Figure 1. Location of the studied municipalities

Figure 2 .

 2 Figure 2. Number of inhabitants and distance from Montpellier of the studied municipalities

  1

bordering

  Montpellier belong to Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole, where agriculture occupies only limited and fragmented spaces, although some farms have held out or adapted (mainly viticulture). More distant municipalities situated to the east of Montpellier belong to the intermunicipal body Pays de Lunel, which still contains large agricultural spaces exploited for various farming purposes (vineyards, annual crops, extensive breeding, fruits, and vegetables). The periurban municipalities to the west of Montpellier belong to the intermunicipal body Pays Coeur d'Hérault, where there are still large agricultural spaces, mainly devoted to viticulture. Lastly, Villeveyrac belongs to the intermunicipal body Nord du Bassin de Thau, where agriculture is diversified with vineyards, extensive breeding, fruits, and vegetables. To analyse how agriculture fares in municipal policies, we examined municipal urban planning documents and conducted in-depth interviews with local elected representatives.

  2. the actions or projects undertaken: what role do the elected representatives play in supporting agriculture and what is their degree of commitment? 3. the future of agriculture: how do the elected representatives see the future of local agriculture?

  the environment. There is no one responsible for agricultural issues in the municipality. Because of our local history of flooding, we work on water treatment plans, the highway, and the dikes. These are our priorities, not agriculture. All the farmers are coming up for retirement and they have no one to take over their farms. (Lattes elected representative)In category 3 municipalities, where agriculture is treated as a multifunctional component in the PADD, elected representatives recognise the importance of agriculture but have no agricultural strategy. They have sound knowledge of local farmers and agriculture. Some are pessimistic about the future. They refer to the decreasing number of farms, the disappearance of wine-making cooperatives, land fragmentation, farmland abandonment, and the competition over land uses that hinders the creation of new farms. In more distant municipalities retaining extensive agricultural land, housing provision is sometimes an issue more important than agriculture.Of course, agriculture contributes to the local quality of life, but we also need to meet the housing and public infrastructure needs of the newcomers. (Paulhan elective representative) Some elective representatives think, however, that agriculture still has a role to play in periurban areas and that municipalities should support it. In this category, agriculture often means viticulture. The elected representatives underline its importance in the local economy, as well as in local quality of life, in landscape conservation, local identity, and the promotion of green tourism. However, they view agriculture as the farmers' personal business. They rely on farmers and farmers' organisations to initiate actions supporting agriculture. Municipal action is generally limited to public events or communication, especially in relation to wines.

Table 1 .

 1 ). Classification and characteristics of the municipalities by category

	Category Municipalities	km from	Intermunicipal body
			Montpellier
	1	Juvignac	9	Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole
		Ceyras	34	Pays Coeur d'Hérault
	2	Castelnau	3	Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole
		St Jean de Vedas	5	Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole
		Lattes	7	Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole
		Castries	12	Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole
		St André de Sangonis	30	Pays Coeur d'Hérault
		Clermont l'Hérault	36	Pays Coeur d'Hérault
	3	Montferrier	7	Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole
		St Georges d'Orques	7	Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole
		Villeneuve	9	Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole
		Sussargues	15	Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole
		St Genies des Mourgues	16	Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole

Agriculture not considered in the municipal policy

  This category includes two municipalities, Juvignac and Ceyras, whose PADD makes no mention of any issue associated with agriculture. These two municipalities have strategies oriented solely toward the provision of urban services and housing. The municipality of

Juvignac, bordering Montpellier, bases its municipal policy on a long-standing residential strategy. Its main concerns are increasing housing stock, transport, leisure activities (golf), and the development of shopping malls. Ceyras, a small municipality situated 35 kilometres from Montpellier, on the outer edge of the urban region, is booming and faces a demand for social housing for impoverished populations arriving from the urban centres. Agriculture is only mentioned in the PADD in connection with the protection of water catchment areas, because of its negative impact on water quality.

  in category 4 are thus characterised by PADDs in which agriculture appears as a strategic component of municipal policy, with concrete objectives and a set of actions, in line with intermunicipal policies. They often display a rural identity, even if they are close to Montpellier. The municipal agricultural policy tackles different issues, depending

on each local context. In the municipalities bordering Montpellier, where agriculture and farmers have almost disappeared, land-use management strategies aim to preserve farmland and help new farmers get settled. In more distant areas, where agriculture is still alive and active, the actions mentioned in the PADD aim more at supporting, promoting, and diversifying agricultural activities.

recensement général agricole, https://www.rga.com/

Acknowledgements

We thank C. T. Soulard for his useful comments and advices.

The French National Research Agency financed this research: DAUME Project No. ANR-2010-STRA-007-01.