Vias lacteas de desarrollo territorial

Milk can go from being a simple resource to becoming an asset and "activating" a territory, through its transformation into quality products, thanks to the traditional know-how of organized local actors. This artide will focus on the linkages between territory, regional development and product, in a pragmatic way, through an analysis of four case studies in Latin America, where the relationship between milk production and territory is central, and contributes to regional development. Analysis of these cases will enable us to consider the lessons learnt, in order to conclude with some strategic proposals. The cases studied use the approaches of the Localized Agrifood System (LAS)2 and the "activation of territorial resources (Boucher, 2004). These approaches make it possible to assess and establish strategies to strengthen geographic clusters or concentrations of rural agro-industries (RAI), as in the case of the cheese factories described in this article.