Implementation time: 3/2003 – 12/2006
Funding agency: European Commission, Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality
Participating parties: Center for Agricultural Research and Ecological Studies and other agencies
The highest urban growth rates in the world are found in East and Southeast Asia. The urban growth is often faster than what governments and city planners can manage. Consequently, the developments in the urban fringe are hard to controll, resulting in chaotic patterns of land use. Spatial and agro-ecological motivations hardly play a role in decision-making about the form and the direction of urban expansion. Fertile agricultural land is often allocated to urban functions such as housing, industrial areas and infrastructure.
Not only land, but also the local expertise on agricultural production and marketing get lost, a waste of human capital in particular in a knowledge intensive sector such as vegetable production. Such a process is, to a certain extent, inevitable but without a systematic assessment of different options, the overall result is a sub-optimal allocation of land to various functions.
To improve this situation an integrated approach is needed which brings researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders in city planning, waste management, food production, food safety and marketing together. The project is supported by the INCO programme of the Directorate-General Research of the Commission of the European Union and the International Co-operation Research Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Quality of the Netherlands.
2. Objectives
The overall goal of the project is to contribute to improving the relationship between urban development and agricultural development in the suburbs of Hanoi, Vietnam to improve living conditions for urban communities. urban and rural. To this end, systematic research will be conducted to find solutions to problems arising from the interplay between urban development and horticulture in suburban areas. Plans for the next activity will be developed from the results of the study and the land use plan in the suburban area.
Specific project goals include:
- Build a forum for relevant agencies to discuss the planning and development of horticulture in the suburbs of Hanoi.
- Determining the rationality between land use for urban development goals and agricultural development goals of people in suburban areas.
- Assess changes in living strategies of suburban residents and changes in the local economy.
- Identify economic and technical obstacles and opportunities in horticulture development in suburban areas.
- Propose participatory approaches to improve effective land use for both urban development and horticulture.
3. Participating parties
- Agricultural Economics Research Institute (LEI) the Netherlands (Project co-ordinator)
- Alterra Green World Research, the Netherlands
- Plant Research International, the Netherlands
- New University of Lisbon, Portugal
- Nanjing Agricultural University, China
- Center for Agricultural Research and Ecological Studies (CARES), Vietnam
- Institute of Sociology, Vietnam
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