Typology of urban agriculture in Germany

The types of the city-regional, i.e. city-near rural, peri-urban and intra-urban agriculture ("urban agriculture") were qual- itatively recorded in this study on the basis of an online re- search.<br />The types of agriculture were assigned to main actors and their main intention. Profit-oriented companies, non-prof- it-oriented urban gardening initiatives and the administra- tions of the cities and municipalities were named as the main actors.<br />The companies manage both open land areas and green-<br />house areas work in building integrated or building bound agriculture. They use open spaces, cages, stables, plant growth chambers or combined systems such as aquaponics to produce a wide variety of products. They use soil, sub- strates, hydroponic media or growing media. Their services range from the production of arable and horticultural crops to animal husbandry; Processing and refining of raw mate- rials are included. The raw materials are used to produce food for humans, animal feed or to generate energy. Nature conservation and biodiversity services are increasingly being integrated. There are also social benefits. Funding measures play an important role in the orientation of many companies.<br />Not-for-profit, urban gardening takes place in public spaces, community gardens and in house and allotment gardens. The focus here is on questions of lifestyle, self-realization, partici- pation and cooperation, self-sufficiency, shaping the environ- ment and experiencing nature.<br />The common good-oriented work of the cities and municipal- ities themselves leads to programs and concepts in terms of services of general interest, but also to their own measures that represent the framework for urban agriculture. For this purpose, guiding concepts such as the edible city, urban-re- gional food systems, food councils, sponge city or green city concepts are adapted and further developed.<br />The targeted addressing, networking and, if necessary, finan- cial support of the economically working farms, the socially oriented working urban gardeners and the public welfare-ori- ented cities and municipalities that have to create the frame- work conditions for urban agriculture appear to be of central importance in order to support and promote agriculture in its multifunctionality and to develop its huge potential.