IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v78y2018icp447-459.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Keeping agriculture alive next to the city – The functions of the land tenure regime nearby Gothenburg, Sweden

Author

Listed:
  • Wästfelt, Anders
  • Zhang, Qian

Abstract

Sustaining food production close to cities is not easy, as farming is often much less profitable compared to other activities in such locations, and it is at the frontier of resisting the pressures from urbanization and globalization. This study looks into an underexplored issue in peri-urban agriculture research – the role that land lease can play for preserving peri-urban agriculture. Leasing has increasingly become a common praxis in the Western industrialized world and it is a very necessary means for accessing limited farmland especially in peri-urban areas. Focusing on farms near Gothenburg, this study explores how the spatial structure of leasing brings opportunities as well as constraints to the change and continuation of farming in this peri-urban area. The investigation is guided by social, spatial and functional conceptualizations of land tenure, which 1) consider land tenure as a social relation, 2) are centered on functional constraints for agricultural production, and 3) highlight the spatial effects. Based on a combination of map interpretations, statistical analysis and interview analysis, the results show a strong and spatially structured pattern of production, farm and land use changes. Agriculture shows mainly to be driven by the landowner’s leasing strategies but is also shaped by the interplays between the landowner and the leasehold farmers. Existing food production farms have been able to rely on adding land from side lease for development even though the increase of small horse farms, holding whole-farm leases, makes it hard for new food production farms to start up. Policymakers are recommended to strategically use long-term leases as a policy instrument on municipal land at the peri-urban location, to incentivize food production farmers as well as to reduce land management costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Wästfelt, Anders & Zhang, Qian, 2018. "Keeping agriculture alive next to the city – The functions of the land tenure regime nearby Gothenburg, Sweden," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 447-459.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:78:y:2018:i:c:p:447-459
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.06.053
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837717312826
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.06.053?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peggy Petrzelka & Sandra Marquart-Pyatt, 2011. "Land tenure in the U.S.: power, gender, and consequences for conservation decision making," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(4), pages 549-560, December.
    2. Jin, Songqing & Deininger, Klaus, 2009. "Land rental markets in the process of rural structural transformation: Productivity and equity impacts from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 629-646, December.
    3. Omar Razzaz, 1995. "To Buy or Lease? Farm Revival in Eastern and Central Europe," World Bank Publications - Reports 11654, The World Bank Group.
    4. Ciaian, Pavel, & Kancs, d’Artis & Swinnen, Jo & Van Herck, Kristine & Vranken, Liesbet, 2012. "Key Issues and Developments in Farmland Rental Markets in EU Member States and Candidate Countries," Factor Markets Working Papers 115, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    5. Sarah Bowen & Peter Gerritsen, 2007. "Reverse leasing and power dynamics among blue agave farmers in western Mexico," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 24(4), pages 473-488, December.
    6. Evan Fraser, 2004. "Land tenure and agricultural management: Soil conservation on rented and owned fields in southwest British Columbia," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 21(1), pages 73-79, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bradfield, Tracy & Butler, Robert & Dillon, Emma J. & Hennessy, Thia & Loughrey, Jason, 2023. "The impact of long-term land leases on farm investment: Evidence from the Irish dairy sector," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Bradfield, Tracy & Butler, Robert & Dillon, Emma J. & Hennessy, Thia, 2020. "The factors influencing the profitability of leased land on dairy farms in Ireland," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Shuaibing Zhang & Kaixu Zhao & Shuoyang Ji & Yafang Guo & Fengqi Wu & Jingxian Liu & Fei Xie, 2022. "Evolution Characteristics, Eco-Environmental Response and Influencing Factors of Production-Living-Ecological Space in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-26, July.
    4. João Carrilho & Jorge Trindade, 2022. "Sustainability in Peri-Urban Informal Settlements: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-35, June.
    5. Thareau, Bertille & Billaud, Jean-Paul, 2021. "Farmers’ land strategies in peri-urban areas: the case of Angevin conurbation," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), vol. 102(1), March.
    6. Movahedi, Reza & Jawanmardi, Sina & Azadi, Hossein & Goli, Imaneh & Viira, Ants-Hannes & Witlox, Frank, 2021. "Why do farmers abandon agricultural lands? The case of Western Iran," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    7. Adewale Henry Adenuga & Claire Jack & Ronan McCarry, 2021. "The Case for Long-Term Land Leasing: A Review of the Empirical Literature," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, March.
    8. Dan Li & Wenjing Zhong & Yitao Chen, 2022. "The Role of Farmland Titling in Urban Agricultural Resilience: Evidence from Metropolitan Guangzhou, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-20, November.
    9. Bertille Thareau & Jean-Paul Billaud, 2021. "Farmers’ land strategies in peri-urban areas: the case of Angevin conurbation," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 59-79, March.
    10. Lawton, Amy & Morrison, Nicky, 2022. "The loss of peri-urban agricultural land and the state-local tensions in managing its demise: The case of Greater Western Sydney, Australia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    11. Spyra, Marcin & Kleemann, Janina & Calò, Nica Claudia & Schürmann, Alina & Fürst, Christine, 2021. "Protection of peri-urban open spaces at the level of regional policy-making: Examples from six European regions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leonhardt, Heidi & Penker, Marianne & Salhofer, Klaus, 2019. "Do farmers care about rented land? A multi-method study on land tenure and soil conservation," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 228-239.
    2. Leonhardt, Heidi, 2017. "Tenancy and Soil Conservation in Austria: Analysing the Crop Choice of Farmers," 57th Annual Conference, Weihenstephan, Germany, September 13-15, 2017 262006, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    3. Sawadgo, Wendiam & Zhang, Wendong & Plastina, Alejandro, 2019. "What drives landowners’ conservation decisions? Evidence from Iowa," ISU General Staff Papers 201905230700001082, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    4. Katrin Daedlow & Nahleen Lemke & Katharina Helming, 2018. "Arable Land Tenancy and Soil Quality in Germany: Contesting Theory with Empirics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-15, August.
    5. Leonhardt, Heidi & Braito, Michael & Penker, Marianne, 2019. "Why do farmers care about rented land?," FORLand Working Papers 14 (2019), Humboldt University Berlin, DFG Research Unit 2569 FORLand "Agricultural Land Markets – Efficiency and Regulation".
    6. Adewale Henry Adenuga & Claire Jack & Ronan McCarry, 2021. "The Case for Long-Term Land Leasing: A Review of the Empirical Literature," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, March.
    7. Wenjun Guo & Wei Zhao & Min Min, 2022. "Operation Scale, Transfer Experience, and Farmers’ Willingness toward Farmland Transfer-In: A Case Study of Rice–Crayfish Cultivating Regions in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-16, March.
    8. Hong, Yan-Zhen & Chang, Hung-Hao & Dai, Yong-Wu, 2018. "Is deregulation of forest land use rights transactions associated with economic well-being and labor allocation of farm households? Empirical evidence in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 694-701.
    9. Gottlieb, Charles & Grobovšek, Jan, 2019. "Communal land and agricultural productivity," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 135-152.
    10. Mullan, Katrina & Grosjean, Pauline & Kontoleon, Andreas, 2011. "Land Tenure Arrangements and Rural-Urban Migration in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 123-133, January.
    11. Kijima, Yoko & Tabetando, Rayner, 2020. "Efficiency and equity of rural land markets and the impact on income: Evidence in Kenya and Uganda from 2003 to 2015," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    12. Su, Baozhong & Li, Yuheng & Li, Lequn & Wang, Yue, 2018. "How does nonfarm employment stability influence farmers' farmland transfer decisions? Implications for China’s land use policy," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 66-72.
    13. Cao, Yueming & Bai, Yunli & Zhang, Linxiu, 2021. "Plot Size, Adjacency, and Farmland Rental Contract Choice," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315378, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Zhang, Jian & Mishra, Ashok K. & Ma, Xianlei, 2023. "Mechanism of Chinese farmers’ land rental participation: The role of invisible markets and public intervention," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    15. Samuel Adjei-Nsiah & Cees Leeuwis & Ken Giller & Thom Kuyper, 2008. "Action research on alternative land tenure arrangements in Wenchi, Ghana: learning from ambiguous social dynamics and self-organized institutional innovation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(3), pages 389-403, September.
    16. Zhang, Yumei & Diao, Xinshen, 2020. "The changing role of agriculture with economic structural change – The case of China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    17. Zhihua Leng & Yana Wang & Xinshuo Hou, 2021. "Structural and Efficiency Effects of Land Transfers on Food Planting: A Comparative Perspective on North and South of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-18, March.
    18. Lijuan Xu & Abbas Ali Chandio & Jingyi Wang & Yuansheng Jiang, 2022. "Does Farmland Tenancy Improve Household Asset Allocation? Evidence from Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, December.
    19. Johanna CHOUMERT & Pascale PHELINAS, 2015. "Farmland Rental Values in GM Soybean Areas of Argentina: Do Contractual Arrangements Matter?," Working Papers 201532, CERDI.
    20. Feng, Lei & Zhang, Minghui & Li, Yixin & Jiang, Yan, 2020. "Satisfaction principle or efficiency principle? Decision-making behavior of peasant households in China’s rural land market," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:78:y:2018:i:c:p:447-459. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.