Banana production in the French West Indies is currently facing an economic, environmental and social crisis. Several factors are damaging the image of social advancement previously associated with banana production: fluctuations in the sales price of the fruit, the planned end of European subsidies, the considerable damage caused to the environment, and finally, the debt overload of producers. The new plan recently introduced by the French administration for the recognition of the multifunctionality of agriculture provides stakeholders in banana production areas with a unique opportunity to establish sustainable agriculture. However the influx of public funds to achieve this aim should not be standardised. This study presents a diagnosis that is strategic in the sense that it does not limit itself to a fixed site inventory; but instead reveals how the various systems of activity in which agricultural activities are rooted can give rise to differentiated proposals for public support aimed at developing sustainable agriculture. As a consequence, the way in which research proceeds must also change, i.e. the links between laboratory and fieldwork, and the negotiation of research protocols with the stakeholders involved. These are the new ways of thinking that the research community will have to invent, pilot and adapt in itinere.