Abstract
The Mediterranean is a hot spot of climate change. The reduction in water availability resulting from thermal and water extremes is putting water uses under pressure. Agriculture is the main user of water, and this new hydrological context calls for its adaptation. Adaptation policies to the risk of water shortages adopt a technical approach represented by water supply projects. But the intensification of climate change is amplifying criticism of these policies. By considering adaptation as a form of vulnerability determined by social and territorial factors, this thesis proposes an alternative approach based on interviews with 77 farmers, analysed using qualitative analysis software. By comparing the adaptation strategies of farmers in two Mediterranean regions, Roussillon in France and Argolide in Greece, the thesis shows that the actors of the agri-food products, as well as the rules governing the integration of farms into the market, hinder the adaptation of farmers, and favour strategies that increase the quantitative use of water. However, the adapting farmers develop strategies that partly break with these actors and rules in the two study areas. The comparison and analysis of agricultural vulnerability to water shortage shows that adaptation is not just a question of the availability of water resources, but also depends on the development trajectories of hydro-agricultural territories and the effects of geographical context