Les conditions de durabilité de la production de la canne à sucre à la Martinique : une approche territoriale

The recent evolutions relative to the sugarcane and to its two main finished products (the sugar and the rum) in Martinique led in interrogate about the future of this production. The present thesis, which concerns this problem, was the object of collection of data and analysis on the functioning of sugarcane production units and on the construction of the controlled label (AOC) “Martinique agricultural rum”. It contributes so to the knowledge and to the understanding of the martinican sugarcane production at the dawn of the XXIth century. From a forward-looking on the future of the martinican sugarcane production, it proposes a methodology of analysis to think about the future of small agro-industrial productions, in a fragile socioeconomic context. The problem of the sugarcane future in Martinique is analyzed from the central concept of durability, allowing the consideration of the various dimensions of this production (environmental, economic, social, land). As has been the case in other old “sugar islands”, sugarcane has known a significant decline in Martinique since the sixties, however the AOC label for Martinique agricultural rum obtained in 1996 allowed for a certain enhancement of the territory. In the context of an unsure sugar and rum market, this thesis shows that the future of sugarcane production goes through the strengthening of the patrimonial dimension of Martinique agricultural rum, as well as the valorization of the role of sugarcane in the construction of the identity as well as the development of the territory. Beyond the side effects of slavery, the role of sugarcane in the structuring process of martinican society, economy, culture, architectural and landscape heritage, makes this crop the key element of the territory. However, because of persistent socio-ethnical caesuras, the identity dimension of this culture finds it difficult to crystallize in the label “Martinique”, still quite new. Acknowledging the contribution of sugarcane to the sustainable development of the territory could be favorable to the convergence of the individual and collective, socio-economic and environmental interests. (Résumé d’auteur)