Peri-urban agriculture and land use change under global challenges for food security: urban planning perspective

Abstract

Policies addressing food security issues are becoming an increasingly important agenda globe wide. The preservation of agricultural land and contribution of urban agriculture to food security is widely recognized as a need. The main treat to agricultural land use change (ALUC) is due to urban sprawl and land take, and the first under attack is the land in peri-urban areas. The current growth of ALUC is contrary to the principles of sustainability. The prevention of agricultural land loss and permanent land use change, i.e., land take is seen as the necessity and there is no dilemma on that issue (“no net land take”). Agricultural land within functional urban area (FUA) of Novi Sad face with strong land use change pressures. Starting from the broadly adopted theses that spatial and urban planning affect ALUC, the author analyses the experiences in urban planning practice regarding ALUC within part of Novi Sad FUA and analyses the effects of regulatory land policy instruments. The purpose of this approach is to contribute with such perspective to very modest domestic research practice on those issues. As a result, the extension of ALUC, which inevitably has implications on peri-urban agriculture in the context of food security, is perceived. With the reference to some international experiences on related issues, the author draws a parallel and concludes that binding legal framework providing protection of urban agriculture through land use planning practice is a key for the protection of agricultural land, especially high quality land within peri-urban area of Novi Sad.