Farmers and the city: enhancing added value and sustainability through optimized use of urban and peri-urban farm resources (URBANFARMS)

Farmers in (peri)urban areas may utilise their location to increase the profitability of the farm production. The project will develop sustainable business models which will utilise the urban market and propose an optimised utilisation of farmland resources. We will create knowledge which will reduce hindrances along the value chain from producer to consumer. Further, we will integrate the farm production and activities more closely with the cycle of nutrients and organic matter from soil to table, and back to soil, e.g. by using organic waste to produce growing media for sale.

Ten farms close to Oslo or Bergen will join the project. Further, the area of Bristol (UK) will be studied because this is a hotspot of urban farming in the UK where the potential of urban farming for sustainable food security is much more developed than in Norway.

Mappin of resources and analyses of markets will be conducted on regional level, whereas the potentials for closer contact with the urban markets and better integration in the urban cycling of nutrients and organic matter will be studied on farm level.

Examples of business models making use of a (peri)urban location are community supported agriculture, self-harvesting schemes, direct sales and delivery to restaurants. The project will analyse the economic, social and ecological sustainability on farm level, and use this to develop the business models and to strengthen the integration in the urban cycling of nutrients and organic matter.