To farm or not to farm : A study of the multifunctional use of urban agriculture in the city of Linköping

Sammanfattning

As the urbanization rate increases, land competition challenges between agricultural and urban land become more prominent. This shift of rural/urban populations creates a food system based on fewer farmers and technological advancements. With the possibility of fulfilling multifunctional roles of creating and enhancing social interactions, health, food production, biodiversity, and climate mitigation, urban agricultural can be used to address these challenges. Therefore, this study aimed to get an insight into motivations and drivers, enablers and obstacles for using urban agriculture in a Swedish urban context, more specifically the city of Linköping. 9 semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of different urban agricultural initiatives in the city of Linköping. The initiatives use different types of in-soil agriculture – pallet collars, cover cropping and field farming. The results showed that social cohesion and food production were the main motivations for using urban agriculture. Social cohesion was also mentioned as an enabling factor, together with the possibility of using smaller unused land and spreading information to people from a young age. The most prominent obstacles were land competition, inadequate communication and the seasonality of agriculture in Sweden.