Urban farm in Wroclaw – what has been achieved after the first season?

In Wroclaw, the urban farm has ceased to be just a vision from EU brochures and has become a living organism that grows, reacts and teaches. This endeavor combines ground-based vegetable growing with education, job activation and climate change adaptation, while testing how feasible it is to produce food in the heart of the city. How is such an initiative born? What does an urban food system mean in practice? And can it be built through multi-stakeholder collaboration? Agnieszka Hobot’s questions are answered by Katarzyna Sokolowska from the Department of Strategy and Sustainable Development at the Wroclaw City Hall.

Agnieszka Hobot: Where did the idea to create an urban farm within the structures of the university and the city come from – what environmental, social or systemic needs were identified as the most urgent?

Katarzyna Sokolowska: In the Department of Strategy and Sustainable Development at UMW, we have been implementing environmental projects related to food for several years now. One of the first was FOODSHIFT, which started in 2020 and was funded by EU funds. It enabled us to build fruit and vegetable gardens next to schools and kindergartens.

Another project – BioCanteens 2 – showed, using the example of the French city of Mouans-Sartoux, that it is possible to go a step further and establish not only gardens, but also farms – growing vegetables on a larger acreage and using them in school kitchens. The thinking of implementing a similar solution in Wroclaw, in a way, sealed the signing of the 2022. Milan Pact, a declaration of care for the local food system from the moment it is produced until human consumption.

It is clear that the city cannot fulfill this pledge by acting alone. After all, building a sustainable food system requires the involvement of all its stakeholders. Therefore, in the next steps, we undertook to define our resources and our strengths and weaknesses, and began looking for partners to successively put this declaration into practice.

One of them was the Wroclaw University of Life Sciences, with which we very quickly caught common ground and signed a cooperation agreement. The university has in its resources not only substantive resources (specialists, scientists), but also land and equipment resources (the grounds of the Research and Teaching Stations and their equipment), which was a decisive factor in allowing us to move so quickly from the concept of the Wroclaw Urban Farm to its implementation.

Both the city and the university are committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, adapting to climate change, reducing emissions, promoting sustainable agriculture and education in this area, and acting for the benefit of the local community along with successively increasing its food security. All of this is the basis of our cooperation, and we can achieve all of this within the framework of one project – Urban Farm Wroclaw.

A.H.: Wroclaw has been facing hydrological challenges for years – from urbanization to local water shortages. To what extent was the Urban Farm designed as part of the city’s adaptation to these realities?

K.S.: Urban Farm Wroclaw is a dynamic project – we are not talking about something that has been thoroughly prepared, implemented and is now simply working according to theoretical assumptions. We are still refining its final shape, but we are doing it in practice. We have implemented the basic assumptions in order to be able to observe on a daily basis on a so-called “living organism” what works and what needs to be optimized.

Some changes we are able to make on an ongoing basis, while others will require more time and, for example, raising additional funds. We are thinking about this project from a long-term perspective and want to strive to make this model as complementary, sustainable and self-sustaining as possible. However, we know that this will require time and funds. This is the case, among other things, in terms of preparing the farm for hydrological challenges. They will be, because in the case of the Urban Farm Wroclaw we are talking about ground-based crops, and not, for example, vertical or hydroponic crops (where water circulates in a so-called closed cycle). In addition, growing crops within city limits is always more difficult – if only because of the highly urbanized neighborhood.

From conversations with specialists in this area – most notably the coordinator of our project on the University’s side, Ms. Boguslawa Bronowicka – we know that there are many different forms of preparing for these challenges, such as building underground retention tanks or using different types of minerals (such as serpentinite or basalt), which, thanks to their porous structure, absorb water to release it into the environment during drier periods.

What we have implemented in the first season of operation of the Wroclaw Urban Farm (remember that the project we are talking about is very young, we have only the first test season of cultivation behind us) is mulching (with biodegradable film and straw), which reduces evaporation, or providing manure or compost to increase the water capacity of the soil. Major investments in reducing tap water consumption on the farm are yet to come. The important thing is that at this stage we are aware of them, monitoring the scale of the challenge and seeking external funds for development.

A.H.: Does the farm’s infrastructure – irrigation, crop selection, agronomic treatments – take into account water management as a critical parameter? What specific solutions have been implemented to minimize the impact of drought on the bottom line?

K.S.: As I mentioned earlier, in my opinion, water management is always one of the critical parameters when we talk about ground crops (especially given the increasingly frequent droughts in our region). All of the infrastructure elements indicated are important – in the first cropping season we primarily relied on mulching and providing manure.

When growing vegetables in the ground, unfortunately, you can’t do without watering with tap water. We always do this first thing in the morning to minimize evaporation. The first season has already shown that if we want to strive for the maximum sustainability of the farm’s operating model, additional hydrological solutions will have to be implemented, but, as I mentioned, this is yet to come.

A.H.: Does the experience of the farm’s first year of operation confirm that food production in an urban setting can be stable and predictable – including in the context of climate change or supply chain issues?

K.S.: Given the short time of the Wroclaw Municipal Farm’s existence – too short to take anything for granted – I would reply that the experience of its first year of operation gives a lot of hope for it. The first data show that the 2.5 hectares of land were enough to fully meet the needs of the 16 establishments of the Wroclaw Nursery Complex in terms of supplying them with beets, potatoes, pumpkins and zucchini for 6 months (the crops were delivered from July to December). Every day, meals for more than 2,500 children were created from these vegetables. We had enough crops to donate them to the city’s DPS, which cooks for more than 800 people, and to prepare an additional 3,500 meals for other needy residents of our city (including lonely senior citizens).

Of course, it must take several seasons to comprehensively and authoritatively assess the situation, but already now – with full responsibility – I can say that there is great potential in the development of urban farms to not only provide high-quality vegetables to municipal/public entities, but also (with a well thought-out model; as in the case of our farm):

• activate long-term unemployed residents (in the first season as many as 20 people gained competence in the gardening profession on the farm, and 4 of them found permanent employment there);
• shorten supply chains (during the season we were able to deliver vegetables to customers even a day or two after harvesting);
• reduce pollution (and not only through sustainable production methods, but also through the use of electric transportation; we saved about 570 kg of_CO2 this way).

Ground cultivation will never be fully stable and predictable, if only because of the weather. However, we are able to prepare for such situations (e.g., by providing an alternative source of supply for the city’s units), and in my opinion it would be a much greater loss if such potential were not used and developed.

A.H.: How can the experience from the farm – including the approach to rational water management – be used by other cities or public institutions? Does the project include an advisory and expert component for those interested in replication?

K.S.: By all means, we are happy to share our knowledge and our practical experience with others. Especially since we are the first city in Poland, and most likely in Europe, to launch an urban farm, taking into account the simultaneous implementation of a socio-professional activation program and the delivery of crops to municipal units. We know how big a challenge this is, and we are eager to facilitate the implementation of similar solutions in our own cities. In the first season alone, we hosted interested parties from Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, Nysa and Rawicz, among others. This year we have already had two study visits for groups from European institutions and networks, and more are planned.

A.H.: If you had to name one most important lesson from the first season of the farm’s operation, what would it be?

K.S.: It would definitely be a lesson in cooperation – the more people and individuals involved in such a project, the more difficult it is to manage, but also the easier it is to achieve the intended results. We won’t build important, systemic changes alone. And we certainly won’t build a sustainable city or food system this way. We need to work together. Such synergy makes it possible, within the framework of a single action, to achieve benefits in really many fields, which I heartily encourage everyone to do.

MAIN PHOTO: City Hall of Wroclaw