BVLE Rural Development in Flanders

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Rural development in Flanders a scientific
assessment

• Guido Van Huylenbroeck

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Content

• What does rural development means?
• Role of agriculture
• Strategies
• Assessment of passed rural development actions
  (general Flanders)
• Lessons for the future a territorial approach
• Conclusions

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Definition of rural development

• Hodge (1986) An overall improvement in the
  welfare of rural residents and in the
  contribution which the rural resources make more
  generally to the welfare of the population as a
  whole
• This emphasizes the new position of rural areas
  in European society rural areas fulfil multiple
  functions essential for urbanised populations
  (yellow production, green nature and blue
  residence services)
• Rural development is then about how rural areas
  can better perform their functions and so can not
  be seen independent from urban processes.
• So rural development is then not only about
  economic growth, but also about economic and
  social cohesion and integrity
• It has also a prospective dimension the dynamics
  of rural areas in terms of possible and desired
  evolutions.

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Role of agriculture in rural development

• Agriculture produces both commodity and
  non-commodity outputs (multifunctionality).
• The direct economic contribution of agriculture
  is declining, but the value/significance of other
  outputs increasing.
• This value can be
• Direct higher prices for houses in rural areas
  or increase in tourism activities or
  accommodation prices (Vanslembrouck et al))
• indirect higher well-being and thus better
  performance of such regions
• Role of agriculture in the functioning of the
  rural system (systemic approach) should be
  analysed.

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Strategies to rural development

• Following strategic stages can be distinguished
  in time
• 60 - 80 Modernisation of agricultural sector
• 80 - 00 Integrated agricultural policies
  (agro-environmental regulations, cross
  compliance)
• 00 - ? Territorial and bottom-up approaches
• This means a gradual shift from sector approaches
  to territorial approaches
• However for evaluation of the past, we should
  refer to the old paradigm as that was the leading
  paradigm for passed policies.

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• Evaluation of rural development policies
• In general it is not easy to measure the
  contribution of rural development policies to
  local economic development
• Reasons
• Lack of good methodologies (regional I.O.-
  analysis not yet well developed)
• Lack of (adequate) data
• Small contributions in comparison with general
  economic conditions

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General evaluation results

• In general scientific studies are not conclusive
  on the contribution of EU Rural development
  policies.
• Most RD programmes evaluations only show a slight
  impact on economic dynamics of territories
  (Schmitt et al., 2003).
• The problem of non-focussing and lack of a
  coherent local framework is often mentioned.
• Most RD policies focus on offsetting weaknesses/
  disadvantages (income, environmental or
  territories) and not on a dynamic economic
  development.

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Evaluation of Flemish PDPO

• Economic impact
• Impact on employment and stabilisation of rural
  population nihil to very small
• Impact on income in agriculture limited positive
  but a positive incentive to diversification of
  incomes (AEMs, other diversification)
• Investment support gives higher survival
  possibilities for starting farms
• No or very small chain and territorial
  competitiveness approaches (low multiplier
  effects)
• Environmental impact
• Main focus on reduction of negative impacts
• difficult to assess,
• no clear objectives regarding role of nature and
  environmental resources in territorial development

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Evaluation of Flemish PDPO

• General impact
• Low coordination among measures with as a result
  no or very low synergy effects on both
  development of agriculture as local development
  (no chain approach and no local territorial
  approach).
• Low multiplier and spill over effects between
  sectors because of lack of coherence in vision
  and actions.
• Spatial and horizontal/vertical dimension is
  mostly lacking.
• Still high dead weight payments (paying for
  status quo). This questions benchmarking.
• Importance of PDPO (and other RD initiatives)
• Mind shift
• Small contribution to promoting new role of
  agriculture

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Lessons for a new RD-approach

• In the midterm evaluation recommendations and
  also in the new EU approach a more territorial
  approach is promoted.
• Leading principles of this approach should be
• Pursuing a policy of territorial economic
  development and not only one of offsetting
  (environmental, income or territorial)
  disadvantages
• Policies based on existing linkages between rural
  and urban (certainly in our densely populated
  context)
• Differentiated approach according to role of a
  territory in the coming decades at regional and
  global level
• This requires a territorial approach focussing on
  strengths and opportunities for rural activities
  in a specific region (see Ramos, 2005)

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The territorial approach (1)
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The territorial approach (2)
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The territorial approach (3)
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The territorial approach (4)
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The territorial approach (5)
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Can territorial approach work ?

• Internationally some good examples such as
  Parmagiano region (It), Produits terroires (Fr),
  Pata Negra in South Spain
• Own research in the peri-urban region around
  Brussels shows that local context can make
  difference in diversification and AEMs uptake
• Success requires good SWOT analysis at regional
  level
• Need of building social (confidence and capacity
  for collective action) and human (knowledge for
  leading processes and systems) capital
• Need for new institutions (reinforcing local
  policy level) and methods (e.g. discours approach)

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Conclusions

• Rural development questions the role of
  agriculture in society.
• Support to agriculture and rural areas/sectors
  will in future increasingly be motivated by their
  contribution to the whole (urban) population.
• RD-strategies should be able to strengthen this
  contribution and thus the economic development of
  regions (multiplier and spill over effects).
• Territorial approach can be basis of such
  (bottom-up) RD policy.