Chongtham Iman, Raj
- Department of Biosystems and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Since the end of the Second World War, there has been a rapid increase in agricultural specialization and industrialization in Europe. Farms are growing in size with significant and increasing reliance on external inputs such as agrochemicals with most of the inputs and farm products being transported over long distances. Many consumers, however, prefer local and environment-friendly production which has led to the establishment of small-market gardens which provide vegetables directly to local communities in and around cities and towns in Sweden. To measure and understand the sustainability of these small-market gardens and the gardeners that manage them, a credible and holistic assessment in view of the three sustainability pillars, viz Social, Environmental, and Economic, was required. This exploratory study highlights the multidimensional benefits and trade-offs of small-market gardens assessed by the use of the ‘Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation,’ developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, with results then compared with several large-scale reference farms in Sweden’s Scania province. The results demonstrated that small-market gardens had greater crop diversity, more efficient resource use and management, and more synergies between components compared to large-scale reference farms. Additionally, the small-market gardens scored high in terms of responsible governance, co-creation, and sharing of knowledge, and they involved a significant number of young people through either direct employment or as interns. Small-market gardeners, however, tended to have lower incomes with higher workloads compared to the large-scale reference farms, which created a sense of insecurity for the long-term sustainability of small-market gardens. Market gardeners also reported a lack of direct government support and subsidies for their gardens. In conclusion, small-market gardens appear to be resilient, especially in relation to recent limitations in global trade due to the COVID-19 pandemic, high fuel and fertilizer costs, and changing weather patterns.
Keywords
agroecology; local food; resilience; sustainability assessment; TAPE
Published in
International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development
2024, volume: 15, number: 2, pages: 7-15
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Agricultural Economics and Management and Rural development
Environmental Sciences and Nature Conservation
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/141962