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This research paper discusses the problem of the regions which are being abandoned by agriculture. It deals with conditions in France, and is built on research and studies conducted in various French regions, but the problem, of course, exists in several other countries. Thus two sets of principles and policies oppose each other, "productivist" agriculture, and the "other." This "other" agriculture seems to have been gaining some strength in the past three to five years, as a result of recent events. These changes are the cause of some action against further desertification, as well as in favour of some change in technology, particularly in fertilizers and feeds. But what action there is has appeared to be until now insufficient and inefficient, so that the productivist model continues to gain ground. The line of thought is probably linked with an implicit assumption about technical and social change, that is, the idea that one technological model replaces another. In other words, the greatest part of the literature presents the current dominant model as having replaced a former model.