Driving forces of land use
underlying factors in peri-urban land use
Swedish agriculture faces future challenges regarding food production and land use. Increased competition for agricultural land creates complex situations, where conflicts may arise when productive crop land is in demand not only for food production but also energy- and fodder production. On top of that there is an obvious conflict of goals between agricultural production and non-agricultural exploitation of agricultural land. In several emerging economic regions it is noticeable how agricultural land is being expropriated for development of urban settlement and infrastructure, carrying potentially significant long-term effects.
During the last decade the exploitation of agricultural land in activities other than food production has increased in Sweden and is expected to continue in the same manor. Approximately 700 hectare of land in Sweden is diverted from food production, annually, and in 2013, the Uppsala Municipality showed the greatest change in land use of all municipalities (SCB, 2013). This change in land use has consequences for peri-urban farmers, who are dependent on the availability of agricultural land in the operation of their businesses.
When agricultural land is expropriated for urban development the farmers loose the land resources and there is an increased competition for the remaining land resource leading to high land prices.
In order to better understand the landowners? management of their agricultural land resource, it is essential to find out how landowners make strategic decisions about future land use. Since the final decision regarding land use lies with the landowner, it is important to find out how they make their decisions and what underlying factors influences such decisions. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify driving forces and underlying factors which influence decisions regarding land use. And as it is land use in peri-urban areas that appears to be undergoing the greatest change, this study is empirically focused on this specific type of area.
This study identifies two groups of landowners that are central in peri-urban agricultural land use in the Uppsala area; commercial farmers and institutional landowners. The empirical study is based on qualitative methods, using interviews and future scenarios to promote discussion. Results indicate that farmers and institutional landowners formulate their decisions in different ways. Farmers tend to make decisions incrementally, strongly influenced by previous experiences. Institutional landowners, on the other hand, arrive at decisions in a more strategic and analytic way, where organization goals and visions play a central role. Both groups are characterized by a conflict between short term economic goals and long-term management of the agricultural land. The driving forces that affect the decision-making include political, socio-economic and cultural dimensions. Landowners are largely influenced by their organizational structure and prerequisites for strategic decision-making.