Urban Agriculture in the Dutch City of Almere

By Jan-Eelco Jansma

The city of Almere (30 km east of Amsterdam) has to double in size (190,000 towards 350,000 inhabitants) over the next 20 years. This summer Almere launched its plans for this so called ‘Scale Jump Almere 2030′ (Almere 2.0). East of the city on approximately 3.000 ha. Almere wants to develop a district (Almere Oosterwold) where urban agriculture will be the driver of city development.

Will this district become reality? This will become clear by the end of 2009, when Almere, the national government and the regional authorities, decides how the planned growth and urban expansion will be realised and what role urban-rural development will play in that regard.

Wageningen University designed, in cooperation with a group of stakeholders in Almere, a virtual rural-urban city district. In Agromere, the name of this virtual district, agriculture and urban living merge with each other, providing perspectives for all parties concerned. Agromere inspired the city council of Almere to implement urban agriculture in its city development plans.

For more information on their urban agriculture plans, go here (www.agromere.wur.nl). The site is bilingual in Dutch and English.

Publications Online:

Urban Agriculture Guide – Urban Agriculture in the Netherlands Under the Magnifying Glass

Agromere: how to integrate urban agriculture in the development of the Dutch city of Almere?