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Planning and designing flood expansion areas on agricultural land becomes more and more frequent in rural areas in France, in order to better protect cities and towns located nearby. In this context, flood risk managers must define policy instruments to control land uses and conciliate farming with flood management. In this article, we analyze two cases in the Maine river basin, in order to show the existing variety of possibilities and how they are adapted by flood risk managers to local contexts. Land purchasing is often used but other techniques are also more and more considered (such as the use of public easements (over-flooding easement)). Such choices have direct effects on the local governance of these areas, where environmental priorities must meet and be coordinated with economic and agricultural issues. (JEL: R52, Q54, Q15, Q38)