THE MULTIFUNCTIONALITY OF URBAN ...

TÓTH, Attila. 2013. The Multifunctionality of Urban Agriculture and its Contribution to an Integrated Rural Development. In: Vozár, Ľ. (eds.): Proceedings from the 8th International Scientific Conference of PhD Students organised at the occasion of the European Week of Science. Nitra: Slovak University of Agriculture - Faculty of Agrobiology and Food Resources, pp.82-85. 138 p. ISBN978-80-552-1091-9.

THE MULTIFUNCTIONALITY OF URBAN AGRICULTURE AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO AN INTEGRATED RURAL DEVELOPMENT Attila TÓTH Abstract: This paper deals with urban agriculture (UA) in rural settlements and its diverse forms, functions and services. In the introduction, we define the phenomenon of UA and discuss its main roles, challenges and the objectives of the international COST Action Urban Agriculture Europe. We provide an overview of the most important functions and benefits of UA. Further on, we discuss priorities, aims and possibilities of an integrated rural development and we mention rural development tools related to urban agriculture, like agritourism including also wine tourism, local food markets and labelled regional products of urban and peri-urban agriculture. We provide a categorisation of UA in rural settlements into three main groups: production gardens at family houses and blocks of flats, vineyards and orchards. A description of these diverse forms is provided concerning their functional, spatial, visual and perceptual features and characteristics. The aim is to improve the understanding of UA typology in the context of rural settlements. Concerning products of urban and periurban agriculture, we discuss the importance of self food supply, farm-gate sales and local food markets and their potential contribution to countryside development. We point out the importance of regional product labelling for an integrated rural development and we arrive at the statement, that initiatives and strategies like Slow Food®, Short Food Supply Chain or the mentioned Regional Product Labelling represent tools supporting a sustainable development of rural areas by their multifunctional urban agriculture. Key words: integration, farm-gate sale, local food market, regional product labelling, rural development, sustainability, urban agriculture

INTRODUCTION Urban Agriculture (UA) has been a highly discussed issue in Europe and worldwide recently. There is a COST action dedicated to research into UA and according to its statements, UA plays a key role in two global challenges: urbanisation and food security and can provide an important contribution to a sustainable and resilient urban development and the creation and maintenance of multifunctional urban landscapes (COST-Action UAE, 2012). The Barcelona Declaration on UA and the CAP defines UA as spanning all actors, communities, activities, places and economies that focus on bio-based production, in a spatial context that, according to local opinions and standards, is perceived as “urban”. It takes place in intra-urban or peri-urban areas. The objective of the COST-Action UAE is to elaborate a European perspective on UA and its potentials for a sustainable development according to the Europe 2020 Strategy (Lohrberg et al., 2013). The multifunctionality of UA consists in several functions and services provided by agriculture in urban areas. These functions benefit the society in diverse dimensions: from environmental, through social, up to economic domains. Concerning the relationship between UA and food production, we can group the services into two main categories: those related to food production (for self-supply or local market) and those not related to food production (recreation, education, sport activities etc.). There is a significant share of agricultural land within urban areas in Slovak rural towns and villages. These are represented by vineyards, orchards, production gardens at family houses and blocks of flats (vegetable, fruit or corn plots), polytunnels and greenhouse production and other forms of agriculture within the urban area of rural settlements. According to Bryant (2012), UA provides the society with a wide range of functions and services containing preservation of the cultural heritage in the form of historic landscape and urban structures; sustaining the agricultural land and water sources; providing space for leisure, touristic and educational activities as well as for social interaction and food production for participating families or target consumers. According to Viski and Czene (2012), the priority of an integrated rural development strategy should consist in sustainability concerning the improvement of the life quality in the 82


countryside and implementation of sustainable agriculture; management, protection and conservation of the environment and landscape; sustainable resource utilisation and development of rural settlements. Kadlečíková (2013) states, that despite a significant decline in the economic importance of agriculture, it is still a major component of the local economy in rural areas. There is an ongoing economic diversification in progressive European countries with a tendency to introduce complementary activities to agricultural production like food processing or different forms of rural tourism. According to Verešová and Supuka (2013), historically documented and currently actively managed vineyard landscape segments are lively spaces for agritourism development, where so called wine routes are being established. These activities represent a subgroup of agritourism called wine tourism or enotourism. Slovak countryside has a great potential for a sustainable rural development supported among others by agritourism (Supuka, Štěpánková, Bihuňová, Feriancová, 2008). Agritourism as a rural development tool is strongly related to UA in rural towns and villages concerning local food markets and regional agricultural products. METHODOLOGY Within the European scientific and research project COST-Action TD1106 Urban Agriculture Europe (UAE), we participate in the research into UA that aims at integration of the unique European context of urban and landscape structures, the CAP and the current needs of the European society. This project initiates a common European research into UA based on existing scientific and research projects and reference regions, where Slovakia is represented by the Nitra reference region. Within this project we work on surveying and analysis of different forms of UA in the Nitra reference region. We work on functional, spatial and perceptual analyses of UA in urban and rural settlements. In this paper, we focus on UA in rural towns and villages in order to discuss the potential of UA to contribute to an integrated rural development. In relation to the methodology of the WG 4 of the COST-Action UAE, we have started to conduct a survey of agriculture in the urban and peri-urban areas of settlements with an aim to elaborate a comprehensive overview of different forms and levels of UA in the Nitra reference region. Some basic tools for the analyses were provided by spatial plans of settlements, cadastral maps, orthophoto maps and other graphic data. These are being processed by GIS and CAD applications. The analyses were followed by field research in order to identify and analyse functional, spatial, visual and perceptual attributes of the studied UA objects. We have created a categorisation based on typological, spatial, functional and morphological characteristics. The basic categorisation groups UA spaces into intra-urban and peri-urban areas. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results document our findings concerning UA in rural settlements in the Nitra reference region, with a primary focus on the rural town Tvrdošovce. Based on the analyses and field research, we provide a categorisation of UA forms in rural settlements within three basic categories: 1) production gardens, 2) vineyards, 3) orchards. A characteristic feature of rural gardens at family houses is a marked division into functional areas represented by a yard with an ornamental and a front garden, an animal farmyard situated behind the house and a large production backyard. Traditional components of ornamental and recreational gardens at family houses can be also utility elements like vine pergolas or fruit trees and shrubs. The production garden at family houses has a long-term tradition in rural settlements. In the past, it was oriented mainly to self-supply with fruit and vegetable, while in the 2nd half of the 20th century, it acquires a new predominant function 83


monocultural production oriented to local and regional food markets. At the turn of the millennium, this trend has started to recede and the ornamental and recreational function has started to dominate. However, the production function still holds a significant position and represents a considerable share in gardens at family houses and blocks of flats. In the rural town Tvrdošovce, production gardens have a significant share in private lands, while greenhouse and polytunnel production have rather a complementary character. A specific case is represented by intra-urban areas of rural towns Nesvady and Imeľ, where the most intensive indoor greenhouse production is recorded. Production gardens at blocks of flats have a substantially different functional, spatial, visual and perceptual character. Usually, there are continuous production plots divided into 4 or 8 parts cultivated by the residents. It represents a certain kind of shared space, where we record besides production also an ornamental and recreational function and social interaction between families. Vine cultivation has in the Nitra reference region a long-term tradition. In the rural settlement Tvrdošovce, there are no continuous vineyards in the intra-urban area and vine is being cultivated almost only on pergolas and other metal-wire constructions along paths in yards and gardens. There are continuous vineyards outside the urban area, where they represent large-scale extensive plantations. Cultivation of fruit woody plants in intra-urban areas of rural settlements has also a long-term tradition. While in the majority of gardens, there are only solitary fruit trees in yards and vegetable gardens, there are also gardens, where fruit trees have a dominant share. These are small orchards at family houses that represent a natural component of the intraurban green infrastructure in the rural settlement Tvrdošovce. Another level of orchards is represented by larger extensive production areas in the peri-urban area of the town oriented to the local and regional market. These orchards are situated in a direct contact to the urban area and managed by the local agricultural cooperative. The predominant fruit species is apple, followed by apricot and an innovative species, the sea buckthorn. An important contribution to rural development is provided by local food markets and farm-gate sales strongly related to agritourism. We can provide an example from the rural town Tvrdošovce, where the mentioned sea buckthorn became a new attractive component of the local identity. This product of peri-urban agriculture is oriented to the local and regional market and to agritourism. Beside common apple and peach products, different sea buckthorn products like honey, loose tea (dried fruits, leaves and branches), pure bio-juice or mixed with apple juice are offered by the local cooperative farm. All these products are locally labelled as "The Gold of Tvrdošovce" with an own logo and offered at different events or in the local thermal bath. There is also a possibility to use regional product labelling in order to promote rural areas and their development. We can provide an example of the National Network of Local Action Groups in Slovakia, which coordinates the promotion of labelling within a unified logotype of local products and services. It certifies regional products and services based on these requirements: tradition, local materials, handiworks and uniqueness. They are preparing 7 regional labels within the participating local action groups and public-private partnerships. Currently, there are three regional labels (Hont, Podpoľanie, Ponitrie). The regional products of Ponitrie can be concerned as an efficient rural development tool using also products of urban and peri-urban agriculture in rural areas. CONCLUSION Agriculture in urban and peri-urban areas of rural settlements represented by production gardens, orchards and vineyards has a potential to contribute to an integrated rural development, mainly in terms of multifunctional utilisation and diverse services provided by 84


urban agriculture. It stands for an important component and resource for self-supply, farmgate sale, local food markets and agritourism. Strategies like Slow Food®, Short Food Supply Chain or Regional Product Labelling represent tools supporting a sustainable development of rural areas related to their multifunctional urban agriculture. REFERENCES BRYANT, R. Christopher. 2012. Keynotes: The discovery of Urban Agriculture. In COST Action UAE: Documentation of 1st WG Meeting. Aachen : RWTH Aachen University, pp.5-9. COST-Action UAE. 2012. COST Action Urban Agriculture Europe http://www.urbanagricultureeurope.la.rwth-aachen.de/ [Accessed 10 October 2013].

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KADLEČÍKOVÁ, Mária. 2013. Sustainable Rural Development and Income Diversification in New European Union Countries. In Neményi, M. et al. (eds.): Science for Sustainability: International Scientific Conference for PhD Students. Sopron: University of West Hungary Press, 2013, p. 386, 414 p. ISBN 978-963-334-103-2. LOHRBERG, Frank et al. 2013. Barcelona Declaration on Urban Agriculture and the CAP [online]. Available at: http://www.urbanagricultureeurope.la.rwth-aachen.de/files/130624_barcelona_declaration_on_urban_agriculture.pdf [Accessed 10 October 2013]. SUPUKA, Ján - ŠTĚPÁNKOVÁ, Roberta - BIHUŇOVÁ, Mária - FERIANCOVÁ, Ľubica. 2008. Recreation and nature tourism demand, supply and actual usage: Slovak Republic, cost E33 WG2 country report. In Forest recreation monitoring - a European perspective. Helsinki: Finnish Forest Research Institute, 2008, pp. 216-226. ISBN 978-951-40-2098-8. VEREŠOVÁ, Martina - SUPUKA, Ján. 2013. Changes of landscape structure and cultural values of vineyard landscape. In Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, vol. 61, no. 5, pp. 14591470. ISSN 1211-8516. VISKI, József - CZENE, Zsolt. 2012. A Nemzeti Vidékstratégiáról és a Darányi Ignác Tervről. In Gazdálkodás, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 162-177. ISSN 0046-5518. Acknowledgement: This paper was elaborated within the COST-Action TD1106 UAE and the grant projects of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the SR VEGA 1/0769/12 and KEGA 019SPU-4/2011. Contact address: Ing. Attila Tóth, Department of Garden and Landscape Architecture FHLE SUA Nitra, Tulipánová 7, SK-949 76 Nitra, e-mail: [email protected]

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