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Since the 2000s, the agricultural sector has once again become a central theme of development debates. According to the dominant, liberal, and “modernizing” thinking, the peasantry is doomed to disappear. But, since the 1990s, more and more family farmers claim to be actors of alternative trajectories of agricultural and rural development, in collaboration with other concerned citizens, including engaged researchers. These movements have not yet resulted in a broadly unifying political project. A key challenge will be to link up initiatives promoted by local communities and new public policies aimed at sustainable agricultural development.