Towards Sustainable Agriculture in Serbia: Empirical Insights from a Spatial Planning Perspective

Abstract

Strategies that target food security issues through the preservation of agricultural land are presently a focal point at the global level, particularly strategies that prevent agricultural land loss (no net land take). On the other hand, conflicts over land use, as well as the high value of land in urban areas, challenge the development of sustainable agriculture. Starting from the broadly adopted premise that planning affects land use change, especially agricultural land change, and that the Spatial Plan of the Republic of Serbia directly affects land use on the strategic-developmental and general regulatory level, the authors analyse the framework of the physical, planning and institutional capacities for sustainable agriculture and agricultural land use in Serbia. In their results, the authors provide: (1) an evaluation of new sustainable approaches for agriculture and agricultural land use planning and (2) a systematization of planning solutions at the strategic-developmental and general regulatory level regarding agricultural land use planning in Serbia for the period 2021–2035.