This paper first presents a survey of the water protection policy in the field of agriculture. It then presents the farmers practices in relation to water quality and the policy impact upon these practices. This paper is based on a research project conducted within 6 case studies, including cases of intensive farming (crops and cattle breeding), cases of traditional farming (crops and cattle breeding) and one case of vine growing. The results show that the overall agricultural practices are mainly pollutant and that the impact of the water protection policy is very low, i.e. regulatory instruments, as well as incitative ones. Nevertheless, our research shows that a diffusion process is already at work, which will need time to be perceptible at a large scale.
