Cultivate cities and towns: National strategy for urban agriculture.

The present Strategy bring together different Ministries and seeks to facilitate urban agriculture in Norway through cross-sectorial cooperation. Its overarching goal is to facilitate urban agriculture in cities and towns, inspired by existing policy documents and goals that urban agriculture can contribute to. The Strategy focuses on three areas of work: 1) Sustainable urban and local development; 2) Increased knowledge on sustainable food production; 3) Increased sustainable value creation and business development.
With regard to sustainable urban and local development (1), the government will: Prepare a guide for urban agriculture in local land-use planning, and for planting of fruit trees, berry bushes and other edible plants in public parks and green areas; Assess whether there is a need for adjustments in laws or regulations to better facilitate urban agriculture; Stress urban agriculture as part of the national expectation of regional and municipal planning, including encouraging municipalities to facilitate urban agriculture in land-use planning.
As regards increased knowledge on sustainable food production (4), the government will: Prepare guidance material for small-scale urban agriculture and school-gardens; Encourage collaboration with immigrant organizations to exchange knowledge and adapt measures to different food cultures; Contribute to increased knowledge about urban agriculture through the development of studies and courses, as well as through informal courses offered by volunteer organizations; Contribute to research, competence building and innovation on urban agriculture through existing instruments and programs.
Finally, as regards increased sustainable value creation and business development (3), the government will: Stimulate increased value creation and business development through instruments and efforts in the business-oriented ecosystem, underlying agencies, state administrators, county municipalities and municipalities; and Emphasize urban agriculture as part of the work with the Food Nation Norway policy.
In the implementation of the strategy, emphasis will be placed on cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary cooperation at the government, regional and local level. The ministries will follow up the strategy in their fields, and an official group will ensure cross-sectoral coordination.