In France, as in many other countries, agricultural investments have shown a downard trend since 1974. The author attemps to analyse the explanatory factors using, among other sources, a survey of farmers on the factors that favour or hinder investment. The paper first considers the economic determinants of the investment crisis: falling farm prices and incomes, rising user cost of capital, outlet limitation and farmers' worries about the future. There are also other, more positive explanatory factors, however, particularly farm structure enlargement enabling rationalization of purchases, much increased collective use of equipment, and perhaps the beginning of development of a new technical model.
