LAB190 – Mapping of underutilized farmland

The area of the cross administrative programme including four municipalities and other public organisations, called LAB 190, is situated along the road 190 that stretches along four municipalities from Gothenburg via Lerum, Alingsås to Essunga. The area encompasses urban to rural landscapes including Gothenburg region’s largest continuous agricultural landscape. The area faces big challenges with urban exploitations, underutilized farmland and great need of generation change within the agricultural sector. Several farmers along the road have or is about to abandon their farming activities for other jobs. Both large and small farms are thus increasingly abandoned, and the trend is that this will continue unless actions are taken. The Gothenburg hub, through its forth pilot case in the SATURN project, has the aim to join the forces of the concerned municipalities in order to map underutilized and abandoned farmland and to investigate the ownership status. The project will meet planners and other relevant expertise at the four municipalities and at the Region of Gothenburg during spring and autumn 2019 to start this process.

LAB190 is a long-term collaboration platform to create a model area for the sustainable development of the countryside along national road 190 between Hjällbo and Nossebro. National road 190 is about 70 km long and cuts through four municipalities: Gothenburg, Lerum, Alingsås and Essunga. It is part of one of the green wedges that has been pointed out as important for the sustainable development of society in the Structural Plan for the Gothenburg Region (GR). LAB190 was started in 2013 with a preliminary study. Västarvet invited representatives from Gothenburg, Lerum, Alingsås and Essunga (as well as the Gothenburg Region Association of Local Authorities and the County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland) on a bus journey along road 190, with a seminar afterwards. The participants agreed at the seminar that FOOD, TOURISM and INFRASTRUCTURE were three important themes in which to focus collaboration. A working group was set up which produced a collaboration agreement describing the intentions of the parties involved. The coordination group forms a developing plan. The plan is then decided by the politicians in the steering group for each year.

By initiate a process and model among civil servants at the municipalities alongside road 190, the project will be able to collect the present status and future plans for transitions, land leases and other measures for both private and public farmland. The historical use of the land will be investigated as a support to illustrate future potentials of the land.

The outcome of this pilot project will be to map available land and its future potentials. This mapping will be a valuable interface for municipalities, but also private land owners, to make land available to new entrepreneurs within the green sector. Further, a cross-municipality action plan in order to connect green entrepreneurs with suitable land will be developed. The expected results are to stimulate new job opportunities, support a generation gap, increase local food production, increase self-sufficiency in the area, trigger new business models which includes the dynamic between urban-rural and to create a platform for a greater demographical and ethnical/cultural integration in the peri-urban/rural landscape.

For more info visit the page of the project.