NORD+ 2017 INTENSIVE COURSE RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE ERA OF GREEN AND SILVER ECONOMIES

THE COUNTY OF BAUSKA

Authors: Lisa Gohlke Rasa Ivanauskaitė Tuukka Rautio Toms Skadiņš

RĪGA, 2017

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Table of Contents 1. Introduction ...... 1 2. Case Study Area ...... 2 2. Theoretical Framework...... 5 3. Methods ...... 7 4. Data Analysis & Discussion ...... 9 4.1 Place-based Development Strategies based on eco-economic Niche Innovation ...... 9 4.2 Limitations & Discussion ...... 12 5. Conclusion ...... 14 References ...... 16 Appendices ...... 17

I Executive summary This paper is part of the Nord+ 2017 course. In this paper, we focus on green economy in the county of Bauska. Our main target was to find out if there has been an overall decisive change towards "green" place-based development strategies anchored on eco-economic niche innovation in the agricultural sector in the county of Bauska, as well as to find out what types of eco-economic niche innovation are prevalent. In order to find answers to these questions, we conducted interviews with different local actors and referred to second-hand data in order to gain an extensive picture. In addition, our research has been based on the theoretical concept of eco-economic niche innovations for place-based development strategies as elaborated by Lummina G. Horlings and Terry K. Marsden (2014), as well as on a SWOT analysis of the given agricultural strategies in the Bauska County, which provided us with a useful overview over the agricultural development. Our main conclusions are that there are several place-based eco-economic agricultural development strategies in the Bauska County, representing the main opportunities and strengths for agricultural development. However, weaknesses of those strategies are also given in the form of poor infrastructure, threats to ecological sustainability etc., requiring future improvements and adjustments. This paper was done during a two-weeks intensive course, limiting the time and resources available. We did our best and also formulated ideas for future research, serving, hopefully as a basis for a thesis or a research paper in the future. Special thanks to our contact person who helped us a lot! We want to thank her for all her help and support in conducting research in the Bauska County (for all the tours, meetings, advices etc.). Also we want to thank our professors for supervising as well as all our interviewees. Bauska treated us very well and we really enjoyed our stay and research there!

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1. Introduction

“Bauska is the most beautiful town in Latvia. It is a quiet town, green, with pure air. And it is located in the area known as the bread basket of Latvia.” (Businessman 2, interviewed on 16.05.2017)

Bauska County and its biggest town, the city of Bauska, are located in the southern part of Latvia, bordered by Ozolnieki, Rundāle, Iecava and Vecumnieki counties and the Republic of Lithuania. (Bauska Municipality, 2012a). Its landscape is marked by the Semigallia lowland with shallow river valleys, trees and manor parks and agricultural landscapes, turning the Bauska County with the castles of Bauska and Mežotne, the manor and Lutheran church of Code, and the mounds ("pilskalni" in Latvian) of Kamarde and Aužeļu (Bauska Municipality, 2012b) thus into a preferred tourist destination. And especially its agricultural landscape with huge fields and numerous farms underlines the importance of agriculture for the Bauska County as well as its location within the area known as the bread basket of Latvia. However, despite this, at first glance, favorable geographical conditions and infrastructure, the Bauska County has been experiencing population decrease similar to almost all counties outside the inner zone of the Riga Metropolitan area since 2000. Thus, from 2011 until 2016 the population of Bauska decreased by 2467 (Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, 2017). In addition to that, transformation processes starting in 1991 after the independence of Latvia as well as the opening of the Latvian society and economy to global markets, flows, networks within the processes of globalization resulted in decisive changes in economic structures, agricultural practices as well as in new goals, roles and tasks for the region of Bauska. Hence, what have been the responses and strategies taken by local and regional actors in the Bauska County to adapt to those new requirements and conditions on a local, regional, national and global scale? It is often argued that due to the requirements of globalization, discourses and strategies on regional, rural development have until now mainly been concentrating on economic growth and economic competitiveness of regions in Europe. Only slowly those strategies on rural development seem to focus on sustainable rural development, on the preservation of green space and landscapes, and on place-based development strategies for rural regions. It might be argued that this slow shift in the focus of development strategies for rural regions in Europe from economic growth and competitiveness towards sustainable, environmentally friendly rural development has been decisively influenced by an overall shift in discourses and economic concepts. Thus, there seems to be a slow change in economic conceptualizations from considering nature and the physical environment exclusively as providers of ceaseless resources for industrial production and economic growth towards the urgent need to protect highly vulnerable ecosystems and to concentrate on sustainable and environmentally friendly economic growth. This new concept of economy has been termed “green economy”, defined as “an economy that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. In its simplest expression, a green economy can be thought of as one which is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive (UNEP, 2011).

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According to local authorities of the county of Bauska, green economy also plays a decisive role in the Bauska County, as underlined by tourism concentrating in addition to the cultural heritage of Bauska also on Bauska’s Nature Park, and by the eight protected NATURA 2000 territories of the European Union, several nature foot trails, popular food craft, the importance of, arguably, sustainable agricultural practices in Bauska and much more. But is this focus on green economies also underlined by appropriate development strategies for the rural region of the Bauska County? And, above all, has this been supported by “green” strategies in the agricultural sector as the most important economic sector in the Bauska County? In this report we are following up these questions by concentrating on the research questions: Has there been an overall decisive change towards "green" place-based development strategies anchored on eco-economic niche innovation in the agricultural sector in the county of Bauska? And what types of eco-economic niche innovation can be found? In order to find answers to these questions, our report is divided into four parts: At first we will provide an overview over the main geographical, social and economic features of the Bauska County as well as over the importance and development of the agricultural sector under the impacts of globalization and transformation processes in the area of Bauska. In a second step, we are outlining our theoretical concept referring to eco-economic niche innovations for place- based development strategies as elaborated by Lummina G. Horlings and Terry K. Marsden (2014), followed by an overview over our main research methods. The focus of our report rests on an analysis of the information obtained through interviews with farmers, local representatives and businessmen by way of stipulating main agricultural strategies and their compliance with the eco-economic niche innovations as defined by Lummina G. Horlings and Terry K. Marsden. In our conclusion, we summarize the limitations of the found strategies based on eco-economic niche innovation, possibilities for improvement as well as an outlook over their development in the future.

2. Case Study Area Bauska County was created after the administrative territorial reform of the Latvian Republic in 2009, with a total area of 786 km2. The biggest town and also the center of the parish is Bauska, 68 km from the capital Rīga and 19 km from the border with Lithuania (Bauska Municipality, 2012a). The city of Bauska with an area of 6,14 km2 represents the only town in the Bauska County (Bauska Municipality, 2012b). The biggest villages are Rītausma (located in Īslīce parish; population in 2012 was 1322), Uzvara (Gailīšu parish; 1138) Bērzklani (also Īslīce; 895), Jauncode (Code parish; 827) and Mūsa, with a population of 637 and located in Ceraukste parish. Villages (as in other Counties) are divided into regular villages and centers of parishes (Bauska Municipality, 2012b).

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Figure 1. Location of the Bauska County; its parishes, settlements and roads (made by authors using Bauska Municipality, 2012a and GIS Latvija 10.2., 2013).

The county has a total of 8 parishes (Mežotnes, Codes, Gailīšu, Ceraukstes, Brunavas, Īslīces, Dāviņu and Vecasaules). The areas of parishes are shown in Table 1. Vecsaules parish has the biggest area (164,14 km2), while Ceraukstes is by far the smallest - 67,68 km2 (Bauska Municipality, 2012b). Parish Area, km2 Population (2016) Population density (2016) Brunava 111,79 1360 12,17 per km2 Ceraukste 67,68 1670 24,67 per km2 Code 95,45 2399 25,13 per km2

Dāviņu 80,89 662 8,18 per km2 Gailīši 80,38 2102 26,15 per km2

Īslīce 104,73 3522 33,62 per km2 Mežotne 75,50 1439 19,06 per km2

Vecsaule 164,14 1908 11,62 per km2 Table 1. Areas and population and its density of parishes in Bauska County (made by authors using Bauska Municipality, 2012b; Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, 2017; author’s calculations).

The population of the Bauska County amounts to 23930, with a population density of 30 people per km2. Starting in 2000, the population of the Bauska County, however, has been continually decreasing every year (except for a few exceptions; in some years the decline has been rather small). As a result the population has declined from 30350 people in 2000 to 23930 3 in 2016 (decrease of 6420 or 21,16%). Despite this decrease in its population, Bauska County is still one of the most populated counties in the entire country (Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, 2017). Furthermore, ever since CSP started gathering data on births and deaths for counties in 1996, number of deaths has always exceeded the number of births. Usually the difference is somewhere between 50-150 (Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, 2017).

Figure 2. Population changes in Bauska County from 2000-2016 (made by authors using Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, 2017).

The majority of the population is of working age (62,6%), 21,7% is over the working age and 15,7% is younger. (Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, 2017). The biggest employers in the county are food manufacturing and processing companies, as well as companies in the service sector. Some of the biggest companies are SIA „Uzvara Lauks”, SIA “Lielzeltiņi”, SIA „Uzvara – Strauti”, SIA „Agro – Kamarde” and SIA „Ints un Co” (Bauska Municipality, 2012b). The unemployment rate has been fluctuating over the course of the last three years – in 2014 it was 6,3%, a year later – 7,1% and in 2016 there was a slight drop, down to 6,7% (Indicator models of regional development, 2016). As for the average netto salary, it has experienced rapid changes over the last few years. In 2009, the average salary was 385 euros, dropping to 365 € in 2010. For the next two years the increase was steady, and starting 2014 the increase was rapid – raising from 422 euros to 548. Percentage wise it was an increase of 23% (Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, 2017). One of the main types of infrastructure are roads. Part of the road network is seen in Figure 1. There is one main road in the county – A7 (part of Via Baltica; also known as Bauska highway), and 3 regional routes - P103 (Dobele-Bauska), P87 (Aizkraukle-Bauska) and P88 (Bauska-Linde), as well as a total of 22 local roads in addition to the international highway E67. Road A7 is also part of the Trans-Europe highway system. (Bauska Municipality, 2012b). According to the technical engineering infrastructure chapter in the territory of Bauska County current usage chapter in the Bauska County territorial plan for 2012-2023, the service of heating differs for the parishes (situation for 2012). The city of Bauska uses cogeneration, Ceraukste parish partly uses centralized heating (only for part of the Mūsa village) and other parishes gas fire boilers. There is also one settlement in Īslīce parish that partly uses centralized heating (Bērzkalni), and one boiler house that uses wood. In Mežotne parish, there is centralized heating for two villages (Mežotne, Garoza) while coal is used in Strēlnieku village. As for the

4 remaining parishes, there is no centralized heating, but wood is used for the heating of buildings (Bauska Municipality, 2012b). In terms of agriculture, a total of 52146 hectares (ha) of land is used for agriculture. In the Bauska County, the main part (47127 ha) is arable land (Agricultural Census of 2010, 2011), while forest territories are second largest with 17837,7 ha of land. The most valuable asset of the county are the agriculture lands of national importance. In these lands, the fertility mark is above 60 balls. Most of these areas are located in the parishes of Īslīce, Gailīši and Mežotne (Bauska Municipality, 2012b). In 2010 there were a total of 1622 farms and a total of 4237 people worked in the agricultural sector. 3319 of them are owners or family members of the owners. 918 are full time employees who are not part of the previous group (Agricultural Census of 2010, 2011). Their average economic size equals 21900 euros, and the average area of land for one farm is 36,7 ha. On average 32,8 ha is land that can be used (or is used) for agriculture. Average area of arable land is 38,6 ha. Another prevalent group are sowing fields – on average their area is 38,3. There is an average of 2,6 employees per farm (Agricultural Census of 2010, 2011). Farmers usually grow cereal crops (total area of 31485 ha). Winter wheat takes up 21534 ha, while summer wheat – 5497 ha. Those are the most common ones. Winter and summer barley fields also take up more than 1000 ha (1200 and 2169 respectively). Winter and summer canola (rapsis) field have a total area of 7275 ha for the former, and 2547 ha for the latter. Forage areas take up 2805 ha (Agricultural Census of 2010, 2011).

2. Theoretical Framework Agriculture has, however not only always represented a cornerstone of the economy in the Bauska County, but also in Latvia in general, having experienced major changes in its structure and practices in the course of time. Thus, prior to the annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union, most farms in Latvia and in the Bauska County were small and had a single owner, and farming was an important part of the national character. In 1949-50, however, collectivization started and agriculture was organized into the standard Soviet system of "kolkhozes" (collective farms), sovkhozes. People from the countryside, whose houses and farms were scattered all over the territory of countryside, were forced to move to the central settlement (village). The main idea of this eviction was to create big farms and fields which had to be adapted to huge machinery and the intensive industry of farming. Small household plots were also allowed to be kept, but it was strongly controlled by Soviet government (even a small offense could cause an exile to Siberia). Besides, orders were given regarding what to grow, when to sow and what animals to keep. This situation caused a complete change in agrarian practices and in the agrarian society in the Bauska County as well as in Latvia in general, which changed once again in the early 1990’s when Latvia became independent, land was privatized and old farming traditions were recovered. Due to globalization, however, those agricultural practices and strategies continued altering. Thus, globalization with its entailing "growing interconnectedness between political, social, and economic systems beyond national or regional borders [...] and international regulation of politics, and the global conduct of commerce and finance" (Palmowski, 2008) led, arguably, to a shift in agricultural development strategies and practices. According to Lummina G. Horlings and Terry K. Marsden (2014), globalization has decisive impacts on the development of rural areas in general and on agricultural practices and strategies 5 in particular by way of shaping discourses concerning the development of rural regions on a global, supranational and national scale. Those discourses seem to focus almost exclusively on regional economic growth, on regions being required to be economically competitive in order to survive under global market conditions, resulting in an increasing up-scaling and intensification of agriculture (Horlings, Marsden, 2014, pp. 4-7). In consequence, in terms of agricultural practices and strategies, globalization and its associated discourses have, arguably, led to an increasing disconnection of producers and consumers, to a loss of meaning of the local or regional character of products and services (disembedding) as well as to a disconnection amongst producers and suppliers themselves (Horlings, Marsden, 2014, pp. 4-7). In response to such disembedded discourses on regional economic growth, however, new place- based and more sustainable strategies for rural, regional development seem to emerge, focusing on the construction of new identities and images by way of developing new agricultural goods and services and by resorting to previously unused resources (Horlings, Marsden, 2014, pp. 4- 7). In addition, these place-based strategies emphasize the importance of sustainable rural development as well as of agriculture as an economic sector, food producer as well as for maintaining green space and landscapes. Hence, these place-based development strategies for rural regions in Europe, which have been termed the “New Rural Paradigm”, entail re- territorialization processes, attempting to counterbalance the so far dominant place-less, deterritorializing discourses connected to globalization (Horlings, Marsden, 2014, pp. 4-7). This “New Rural Paradigm” incorporates both the bio-economic paradigm as well as the eco- economic paradigm (Horlings, Marsden, 2014, pp. 4-7). Such eco-economic strategies, in turn, which are concentrating on an integrative and regionally based development of rural areas, can again be divided into three different pathways: (niche-) innovation, new interfaces and re- orientation on territorial capital (Horlings, Marsden, 2014, p. 9). The first pathway, niche innovation, describes eco-economical regional development strategies anchored on the elaboration of new product-market combination, i.e. on innovations which can in different ways be linked to sustainability (Horlings, Marsden, 2014, pp. 9-11). In this research paper, we are analyzing several place-based development strategies focusing on eco-economic niche innovations in the county of Bauska according to the four dimensions of sustainable niche innovation defined by Lummina G. Horlings and Terry K. Marsden (2014, pp. 11-13): 1. Existing products for existing markets: Innovation is concentrating on quality products and marketing tools in order to deal with constraining regulations and/or to compete with dominant industrial brands in already existing markets. Those innovations might also include the formation of cooperatives or associations for collective marketing, vertical integration, product branding, the elaboration of quality guidelines etc. 2. New products for existing markets: Innovation takes place in the form of new types of breeds, of non-food products or the (re)introduction of agricultural products. Those new products are often initiated by private actors and might incorporate collective action, networking, searching for governmental, non-governmental or EU support in order to succeed in already existing markets. 3. Existing products for new markets: Innovation is concentrated on the search of (food) producers for new groups of consumers on the local or regional scale such as schools and municipalities.

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4. New products for new markets: Innovation takes place by way of defining completely new product-market combinations, concentrating in most cases on horizontal networks and launched by private or public initiatives. Those highly innovative strategies entail in most cases a radical break with the past, resulting in new eco-economic practices.

3. Methods Based on those four dimensions of sustainable eco-economic niche innovation, several place- based development strategies in the agricultural sector were found and analyzed in the county of Bauska. For our research, we resorted to qualitative methods and based our research partly on second-hand data for the theoretical part as well as on the gathering of first-hand data mainly in the form of semi-structured interviews. The field work was carried out over the course of two days (May 15 and 16), and a total of six interviews took place. Before conducting an interview, all team members brainstormed and a list of basic questions was established (see appendix). Three of the interviews were conducted with farmers from around the county (one of them closer to the town of Bauska, while the other two farmers lived and worked closer to the Lithuanian border). A fourth interview took place with several local representatives and a fifth interview with a representative of the Latvian rural advisory center (Latvijas Lauku konsultāciju un izglītības centrs), which was shorter than the other interviews. Also, the team visited the local heating company "Bauskas siltums", where another interview took place (with a member of the board and a leading employee), which provided us with additional information and turned out to be beneficiary. The length of the interviews varied between half an hour and two and a half hours, with an average length of about one and a half hours. Some of the interviewees were suggested by our contact person at the municipality, such as one local businessman and two of out of tree interviewed farmers. Two other farms were also considered as a possibility, but after contacting them, they (due to lack of time) refused to be interviewed. The third interview was finally arranged after a string of refusals from farmers whose information was listed on the municipality website. The farmers were contacted by mobile phone. The reasons for choosing those three farmers as interview partners were there, at first glance, varying agricultural strategies and approaches. As for the interview with an expert, it was more impromptu. The institution we visited is located in the same building as the municipality council, offering general information about the agricultural sector in the Bauska County. In addition, the team also visited the local tourism center and inquired about agrotourism, a visit that was also impromptu in a way, but were informed about research due to a previous visit with our contact person. However, no long interview took place, due to the fact that usually tourists rarely ask about agrotourism, but farms offering services related to tourism are using different types of platforms to advertise (for instance, websites, advertisements) or tourists find out about them through other people. There were, however, some limitations to the conducting of our research: language barrier and time constraints. Only one of the four team members spoke Latvian, which was an issue, because only three out of six interviewees spoke English. In the situations where the person being interviewed spoke only Latvian, the team member from Latvia had to act as a translator. This decision was made, so that all team members could take active part. Other three members were the ones asking questions. This decision ensured that everyone is active during interviews, and took away some of the pressure from the Latvian team member. Still, despite the fact that the interviews (and translation) went rather smoothly, we cannot exclude that some parts might have gotten lost during the translation. 7

As for the time constraints, they affected the team in several ways. The short amount of time to conduct the research, some farms being quite far away from Bauska and the fact that farmers are busy at this time of the year impacted our research. The short amount of time did not allow us to use all the information we have gathered (with all the information several research papers can be written; there are a lot of aspects). Besides, better familiarity with mobility and locations in the county would have helped the team, since it was difficult to plan the meeting times not knowing exactly how much time it takes to get to the farm. The (bad) condition of the majority of roads also created time constraints. Furthermore, even though several farmers were quite enthusiastic about taking part in an interviews, they were forced to decline due to its being a busy time of the year. Also, for similar reasons (busy schedule), a specialist concerning agriculture at the municipality was unable to meet with us. The reason for all team members being present at the interviews was already partly explained in this chapter. One main reason was the positive group interview dynamic we experienced during our research, and which was made possible by all group members taking active part in the interviews. Logistics also played an important role – with some of the interviews being outside the town, a car was the only mean of transportation and at least one driver thus necessary for conducting interviews. With the additional language barrier and difficulties in finding appropriate interview partners, it was thus decided that everyone should be present for the interviews. Due to our positive experiences and the positive feedback of our interview partners during our first interviews, this strategy was approved and continued throughout the field work. As a result, this strategy also enabled us to conduct extensive in-depth interviews, which were very detailed and rich in information, even though limited in number. Besides, the presence of the entire group allowed us to compare our notes and impressions during the evening meetings, resulting, in turn, in a better understanding and the development of new ideas as well as to take into consideration new aspects that we had not thought of beforehand. Thus, our strategy turned out to be successful. Last, but not least gathering secondary data was needed for the second chapter (description of the county). This method was used, because the chapter about the county is mandatory. Most of the data were from Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (including the agricultural census), a lot of data were gathered from the municipality materials, namely Environmental Report of the Bauska County development program for the years 2012-2018 and Bauska County territorial plan for the years 2012-2023. Explanatory article. Some information was used from GIS Latvija 10.2 (to create Figure 1.; so it's basically a cartography method too) and Indicator models of regional development. All this data gave a lot of information that was used in the chapter. In terms of research ethics, the main criterion of our research was objectivity. Every group member had to analyse all the information, sources and interviews critically (team discussions helped to ensure this criteria). Another priority was to avoid causing any inconvenience to our respondents. All of them were politely asked whether they want to meet (and what time is proper for them) and also were informed about the interview topic before the meeting. Our main interview strategy was to ask as many diverse and adequate questions as possible and to be careful in not wasting our respondents’ time. Honesty, was also an important policy. We carefully described what we are researching (that was part of arrangement for the interviews) and informed potential interview partners about the main interview questions. The thus gained data were analyzed and evaluated within the overall theoretical framework of place-based development strategies based on sustainable eco-economic niche innovation.

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4. Data Analysis & Discussion 4.1 Place-based Development Strategies based on eco-economic Niche Innovation Our interviews with three farmers, two local representatives and businessmen in the Bauska county allowed us to detect four main place-based development strategies anchored on eco- economic niche innovation which have been elaborated and are pursued by farmers: improvement and marketing of existing products for existing markets, production and marketing of new products for existing markets, production and marketing of existing products and services for new markets as well as the production and marketing of new products for new markets.

Strategy 1: Existing products for existing Strategy 2: New products for existing markets markets

Farmer 2: Latraps Farmer 1: Café, car museum, exhibitions about rural life in the county of Bauska Farmer 3: Latraps and 2 additional before the Second World War, renting of cooperatives rooms for seminars/meetings/ weddings, places for camping, hotel (starting in June 2017)

Farmer 2: Berry creations, herbal mixtures, teas, medicines, honey, foods/dishes from Latvian culinary heritage, seminars on agricultural practices and teaching of ancient Latvian life style for farmers, tourists and pupils Strategy 3: Existing products for new Strategy 4: New products for new markets markets

Farmer 1: rapeseed Farmer 2: Ancient Latvian rituals Farmer 2: rapeseed, forest/wood for heating, windmill Farmer 3: rapeseed, forest/wood for heating Table 2. Strategies of product market innovations. Own table based on "Figure 4. Dimensions of product–market innovation" of Lummina G. Horlings and Terry K. Marsden (2014, p. 12).

Strategy no 1: Existing products for existing markets New, innovative strategies and practices regarding the improvement and marketing of already existing agricultural products for existing markets have been pursued by two out of three interviewed farmers (farmer 2 and 3) in the form of active membership in the marketing

9 cooperative Latraps. To enable farmers to compete on the highly competitive market for wheat, rapeseed and beans, the cooperative Latraps has been founded in the year 2000, allowing for collective marketing and, above all, assuming the task of selling agricultural products for farmers in Latvia at the best possible price on the global agricultural market. One branch of Latraps is located in the city of Bauska, which is major town in the region of Zemgale, the “bread basket” of Latvia, thus avoiding a long transportation time of agricultural products from the farms to the buyer. An additional contribution to sustainability and the quality of products takes place in the form of additional guidelines and control of the observance of EU and national regulations regarding the use of pesticides, the protection of landscapes, bodies of water etc. by Latraps. The active membership and selling of agricultural products to Latraps seems to represent an advantageous strategy for farmers in Bauska (also in other counties in all regions of the country), since both farmer 2 and 3 have been pursuing this strategy for several years and, when asked, could not think of any disadvantages of their membership in Latraps. Rather on the contrary, the membership in cooperatives such as Latraps seems to represent a preferred strategy for owners of small and medium sized farms as underlined by the case of farmer 3 selling 90% of his products to Latraps and two additional regional cooperatives. The main advantage seen by farmers in this case was the saving of time for selling their products, allowing them to concentrate on their work at the farm as well as the possibility to gain higher profit compared to attempts of finding customers and consumers by themselves. The popularity of this strategy in the county of Bauska seems also to be underlined by the fact that, according to a local representative (local representative 2) the majority of farmers in the county of Bauska are active in cooperatives such as Latraps. Only for large farms such as it is the case with the farm of farmer 1 being member and selling products through Latraps seems not to be necessary due to their strong position on the agricultural market.

Strategy no. 2: New products for existing markets In the county of Bauska, innovation by producing and marketing new products for existing markets takes place in several forms. In our case study, this strategy is being pursued by farmer 1 and 2. In this regard, both farmers have defined workers and farmers interested in gaining additional knowledge in agricultural practices, companies and businessmen searching for seminar and conference locations as well as tourists interested in local traditions and traditional (food) products as target groups for their products and services. Thus, in addition to the cultivation of wheat, rapeseed, green beans and barley, farmer no. 1 owns a Café (opened 1997) as well as a car museum for tourists, maintains an exhibition about rural life in the county of Bauska before the Second World War, is renting seminar and conference rooms, as well as rooms for weddings, and provides places for camping. Farmer 2, in turn, offers teaching in agricultural practices as well as an ancient Latvian life style for farmers, tourists and pupils and organizes ancient Latvian rituals (educates people about ancient Latvian culture). Furthermore, in addition to the selling of rapeseed and wheat, he started selling new agricultural products such as self-created berries, herbal mixtures and different types of tea, honey and dishes/foods from Latvian culinary heritage. In consequence, all those strategies pursued by farmer 1 and 2 have clear close links to the specific place and especially to local and regional traditions and knowledge by way of teaching traditional agricultural practices (farmer 2), by offering exhibitions about rural life in Bauska in the past (farmer 1) as well as by teaching ancient Latvian life styles (farmer 2). In addition to that, also links to sustainability can be detected in the form of sustainable, all-embracing usage of the given natural resources: “Everything that is green on the field and in the garden is used.” (farmer 2, 15.05.2017). Furthermore, similar to 10 the case of the first eco-economic strategy based on niche innovation, also those strategies seem to be profitable and advantageous for farmers in the county of Bauska since they aim at continuing their strategies and/or to even increase their efforts in this area as in the case of farmer 1 planning to open a hotel on his farm in June 2017. Those practices are, of course, also profitable in the area of Bauska due to the general popularity of Bauska as a tourist destination (for instance, castles of Bauska and Mežotne), turning the creation of new products and services for tourists into a profitable strategy for farmers. As a result, the production and marketing of new agricultural products has also been picked up by other farmers in the county of Bauska in the form of, for instance, the production of traditional types of cheese, pork meat for festivities (local dairy farm), beef delicacies, home-made ice cream, sheep milk, all types of cheese products (local farm), and much more.

Strategy 3: Existing products for new markets Innovation by way of producing and marketing existing products for new markets were difficult to depict in the county of Bauska, but it is maybe taking place in the form of ancient Latvian rituals organized by farmer 2. Even though such ancient Latvian rituals are neither commercialized or marketed by farmer 2 nor supported by the creation of networks or by the EU or non-governmental organizations, those events have found a new customer group including locals and tourists, Latvian citizens, farmers, businessmen etc. interested in tradition Latvian rituals. Hence, it could be argued that these events do not clearly represent an example of an existing product or service for a new market as defined by Lummina G. Horlings and Terry K. Marsden (2014), but that they can nevertheless be described as an example of agricultural practices belonging to strategy 3 due to the finding of a new customer group (groups) for existing (ancient) events.

Strategy 4: New products for new markets Innovation by way of producing and marketing new products for new markets is pursued by all three interviewed farmers in the form of products for renewable energy production. As a result, all three farmers are producing rapeseed, selling it, mainly, to Latraps for renewable energy production. In addition to that, farmer 2 also operates his own windmill producing about 50% of the energy required for the farm, and farmer 2 and 3 have small forests providing them with wood for heating. Thus, all those strategies pursued by farmer 1, 2 and 3 have clear links to sustainability and seem in addition to gain popularity since, according to local representative 2, more and more farmers in the county of Bauska are cultivating rapeseed for renewable energy production. Besides, according to businessman 1, also biomass in the form of woodchips needed for the local heating system of Bauska city is provided by farmers in the county of Bauska. Those strategies also represent a break with the past, since all those practices have only been launched and gained popularity in the last years, resulting, inter alia, in a shift from the production of wheat towards rapeseed in the county of Bauska. Hence, agricultural strategies in the Bauska County seem to focus on all four dimensions of sustainable eco-economic niche innovation defined by Lummina G. Horlings and Terry K. Marsden (2014). But how sustainable and ecological are those strategies and practices and are their limitations to their effectiveness?

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4.2 Limitations & Discussion The importance of ecological sustainability as well as of the concept of green economy within the current agricultural practices and strategies in the Bauska County was highlighted by all interview partners. Nevertheless, we argue that there still are some negative aspects connected to those strategies affecting their eco-friendliness and sustainability. At first, agriculture in the Bauska County can be considered as one contributor to the pollution of rivers and waters in the region, resulting in reciprocal reproaches among Lithuanian and Latvian citizens regarding who is most to blame for it. Thus, despite the fact that all interviewed farmer follow the environmental regulations of the European Union such as regarding the required distance between agricultural fields/buildings of industry and waters (more than 10 metres) and the amount and type of fertilizers, pesticides etc., this seems not to be enough for preventing pollution of waters and soil. Moreover, one interviewed local representative mentioned the fact that there are some farmers who do not follow such European and national regulations and rather choose to pay fines. Hence, in order to improve the sustainability and eco-friendliness of the current agricultural practices in the Bauska County, one of the main goals of farmers should be the reduction of fertilizers, pesticides and pollution of the air, soil, ground or surface waters. Local or regional authorities could also contribute to this improvement by way of increasing, for instance fines and the control of the observance of those regulations. Furthermore, many farms use wood as a resource for heating, as well as a source for biomass. In addition, in order to increase the size of farm fields, forests are often cut and grasslands are modified to cultivated fields. This destruction of forests and natural grassland leads to increasing CO2 emissions as well as to decreasing plots of natural habitats affecting the regional biodiversity. Besides, it might be argued that there are also limitations to the current agricultural strategies regarding their contribution to improved human well-being and social equity, representing one key aspect of "green economy" (UNEP, 2011). In this regard, one limitation refers to the, arguably, unequal distribution of wealth, which seem to not to be mitigated by the current agricultural practices. Thus, one wealthier farmer had, for instance, the means to invest in an decisive improvement of the road leading to his farm as well as to acquire additional farm land which will very likely not be possible for the two other interviewed farmers due to the current high prices for farm land in the Bauska County, hampering thus their expansion possibilities and providing wealthier farmers with an competitive advantage. Furthermore, those agricultural strategies seem also to have increased the number of different types of social borders in the area of Bauska. Thus, arguably new types of borders that were mentioned during the interviews were, for instance, those between farmers using "modern" agricultural technologies and practices and farmers referring to traditional agricultural practices and knowledge, between organic and non-organic farmers, between "local" farmers with family ties in the region and those who not, between farmers close to the city of Bauska and those on the periphery of the Bauska County, and many more. All these examples show that the current pursued agricultural place-based eco-economic strategies are only partly ecological and limited in their contribution to human well-being and social equity, requiring thus the improvement of agricultural strategies in this regard in the future. This ambivalence of the current agricultural strategies regarding their eco-friendliness and sustainability is also highlighted by a short SWOT analysis of the agricultural eco-economic development strategies in the Bauska County.

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The following Figure 3 provides an overview over the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the current agricultural practices.

Figure 3. SWOT analysis of agricultural development in Bauska county (created by authors). The main strengths of the current agricultural strategies mentioned by our interview partners refer to different kind of funds and support from the European Union, thanks to which farmers are capable of investing in new technologies and agricultural equipment. Another strength represents, as also highlighted by the already defined niche innovation, the opportunity to sell products via cooperatives such as LATRAPS.

If we look at the opportunities, many of our interviewees consider mixed farming and especially products and services for tourism as profitable fields of interest. As a result, many farmers in the Bauska County have discovered mixed farming and new products and services as profitable niche innovation, including those thus in their plans for the future, such as the aim of farmer 1 to open a hotel on his farm. In this context, also products for renewable energy production have been stipulated as profitable opportunities, for example in the form of rapeseed, biomass, windmills etc.

As already mentioned, there are, however, also some decisive weaknesses in the current agricultural development strategies in the Bauska County. At first, the land prices for farm land are high (about 10,000 €) compared to the rest of the country, hampering thus the expansion opportunities of famers. Uncertainty of farmers regarding the future of their farms and the plans of their children whether to continue working on the family farm might be considered a further weakness. Furthermore, farmers are urged to keep up to date regarding the newest technologies and agricultural equipment, making it thus necessary for them to improve their knowledge continuously. Also the lack of work force and machines were mentioned as weaknesses during the interviews, as well as the fact that, so far, organic products and organic farming are not yet profitable in the Bauska County. Underlining thus once again the weaknesses of the current eco-economic niche innovation regarding their ecological sustainability. External threats for agricultural development, in turn, are, for instance, the tightening regulations on European and national scale regarding agricultural practices. Furthermore, it is 13 difficult to predict the future development of global markets, making global markets for agricultural products and services highly volatile. Poor infrastructure in the form of poor road network in bad condition represents a further threat to the current agricultural strategies, since poor accessibility affects the transportation of agricultural products. In consequence, there has even been a protest against the poor conditions of roads in the county of Bauska in the last year. Besides, missing opportunities to enter into dialogue with the national government and local authorities has also been stipulated as a threat by our interviewees, resulting in a perceived gap between the government and local authorities on the one hand and citizens and farmers on the other hand, and increasing problems in finding solutions to the poor infrastructure, funding, and development strategies.

This analysis of the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats of current agricultural strategies highlights thus the general strengths of the eco-economic niche innovations in the agricultural sector in the county of Bauska as well as their weaknesses and opportunities to improve their ecological sustainability.

5. Conclusion In light of those reflections, it seems as if agricultural strategies in the Bauska County are focusing on all four dimensions of sustainable eco-economic niche innovation defined by Lummina G. Horlings and Terry K. Marsden (2014). Those strategies are, however, limited regarding their eco-friendliness, sustainability as well as regarding their contribution to human well-being and social equity, making thus improvements and adjustments of those strategies for the future necessary to consider them as part of the "New Rural Paradigm" and as a contribution to "green economy". This is also highlighted by the fact that in most cases farmers in the Bauska County pursue a double development strategy for the future, based, on the one hand, on a modernization and intensification of their agricultural practices as well as, on the other hand, on sustainable and eco-friendly strategies such as sources for renewable energy, agrotourism, traditional agricultural practices etc. To turn agricultural development strategies in the Bauska County into clear "green" place-based and sustainable development strategies seems thus, at first, to require a shift in thinking both of local citizens and farmers as well as of the government and local authorities for supporting and spreading those strategies. Besides, stronger governmental support seems to be required, as well as improvements of the regional infrastructure and more opportunities to acquire new, additional knowledge. Furthermore, due to globalization, those strategies as well as their effectiveness and popularity are also influenced by the changing global market conditions as well as the respective local and regional situation. In this globalized world, products, markets and flows are always connected on different scales, and local and global actors are like different layers in this geographical space. Thus, actors in our research are connected to the global, supranational/European, national, regional as well as local scale and their actions and strategies depend on the respective economic and social conditions on those scales. Hence, work and interaction usually take place on a local and regional scale, but regulations regarding farming on European and national scale as well as global market conditions influence this work and agricultural practices on the local scale. In consequence, the global and local are partly opposite and partly complementary representations of geographical space and are constantly interacting. Thus, the interviewed farmers were part of several networks on global, European, national as well as regional and local scale, with the result that both the local and global have decisive impacts on their everyday life.

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Any kind of agricultural strategy will thus face compliances and limitations on different scales, whether it is from the state or the European Union, influencing, hence, also the effectiveness and sustainability of "green" place-based eco-economic niche innovation in the agricultural sector in the Bauska County. Attempts to improve or foster those "green" eco-economic strategies are thus required to take into consideration aspects and impacts on different scales. Thus, the future of those eco-economic agricultural strategies will also strongly depend on global, national as well as regional and local conditions and developments. This research paper provides only an analysis of one aspect of "green economies" in the Bauska County. There are, however, as mentioned earlier, many aspects and topics to be found in the county of Bauska allowing for future in-depth research. This refers, for instance, to different types of newly emerging borders, accessibility regarding infrastructure and roads, the importance of knowledge and knowledge chains, a critical analysis of cooperatives such as LATRAPS, and many more.

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References Agricultural Census of 2010. 2011. Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia. Available online: http://www.csb.gov.lv/en/dati/agricultural-census-2010-30766.html Accessed May 8, 2017. Bauska Municipality. 2012. Vides pārskats par Bauskas novada attīstības programmu 2012.– 2018. Gadam (Environmental Report of the Bauska County development program for the years 2012-2018). Available online http://www.bauska.lv/allfiles/files/Dokumenti/Bauskas_AP_SIVN_gala_redakcija_10_05_20 12.pdf Accessed May 8, 2017. Bauska Municipality. 2012. Bauskas novada teritorijas plānojums 2012.-2023.gadam. I sējums. Paskaidrojuma raksts (Bauska County territorial plan for the years 2012-2023. Explanatory article). Available online http://www.bauska.lv/allfiles/files/Dokumenti/teritorijas%20planojums/paskaidrojosa%20dala /Paskaidrojuma_raksts_saist_not_.pdf Accessed May 9, 2017. Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia. 2017. Statistikas datubāzes (Statistics databases). Available online: http://www.csb.gov.lv/dati/statistikas-datubazes-28270.html Accessed May 8, 2017. Collectivization in Latvia. 2016. Michael Pins. Available online: http://econc10.bu.edu/economic_systems/Economics/Economic_History/FSU/collectivization _in_latvia.htm Accessed May 18, 2017. GIS Latvija 10.2. 2013. GIS Latvija 10.2. Envirotech. Available online: http://www.envirotech.lv/lv/aktualitates/gis-latvija-10-2/ Accessed May 8, 2017. Horlings, L.G., Marsden, T., K. 2014. Exploring the ‘New Rural Paradigm’ in Europe: Eco- economic strategies as a counterforce to the global competitiveness agenda. European Urban and Regional Studies. 21(1), 4 – 20.

Indicator models of regional development, 2016. Indicators of counties. Available online: http://raim.gov.lv/cms/tiki-index.php?page=Municipality Accessed May 9, 2017. Palmowski, J. 2008. A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century World History. Oxford, Oxford University Press. UNEP. 2011. Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication. Green Economy Report. Available online: www.unep.org/greeneconomy Accessed May 14, 2017

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Appendices List of interview/meeting partners Interviewees Date / time Data 1 Farmer 1 15.05.2017 In total: 5800 ha 12-1 pm Employees: 100

Mixed farming: winter/summer wheat, rapeseed, green beans, barley, Café, car museum, museum/exhibition about rural life in the county of Bauska before WWII, renting of rooms for seminars/meetings/ weddings, hotel (starting in June 2017)

Family farm 2 Farmer 2 15.05.2017 In total: 365 hectares (50 % own land, 50% leased) 3:00-5:00 pm

Employees: 2 (owners)

Mixed farming: winter/summer rapeseed, winter/summer wheat, small forest, berry trees and bushes, herbs & teas, medicines, bees/honey, foods/dishes from Latvian culinary heritage, organization of ancient Latvian rituals, seminars on agricultural practices and teaching of ancient Latvian life style for farmers, tourists and pupils, windmill

Family farm 3 Farmer 3 16.05.2017 In total: 466 hectares (260 hectares own land, 206 hectares leased) 11:45am - 1:30pm Employees: 3 (including the owner)

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Mixed farming: winter/summer wheat, winter/summer rapeseed, beans, 3 hectares of forest

Family farm 4 Local 15.05.2017 Development & Planning representative 1 9:00-11:00 am (meeting) 5 Local 16.05.2017 Agricultural specialist representative 2 3:45-4:30 pm (Public) Farmers’ Advising Center 6 Businessman 1 16.05.2017 Member of the board of a local company Businessman 2 9:00-11:00 am Leading employee

Framework of interviews for farmers: 1. Name and surname; 2. Position/job/task 3. How many hectares of farm land do you have (own land and/or rented)? 4. How many owners does your farm have? 5. When did you start working as a farmer and what reason in doing so? 6. How did the type of plants cultivated on your farm change in the course of time and why? 7. What plants do you cultivate nowadays? 8. How many employees do you have? Where are they from? (locals, from other counties) 9. What kind of products and services do you offer? And are you selling them or are they only for your own needs? 10. Where do you sell your products? (local market/global market) 11. What are your main customers? 12. Do you have any partners? 13. What kind of technologies/machinery do you have? Where did you acquire it? And how did you finance it? (private/municipality/county/national/EU funds) 14. Did you apply for/receive any kind of funding? 15. Do you belong to LATRAPS or another cooperative? 16. What kind of challenges are you facing right now? 17. What kind of challenges does the county of Bauska face right now? (personal opinion) 18. What kind of energy and heating systems do you use? (advantages and disadvantages) 19. What are your plans for the future? 20. What do you know about “green economy”? 21. Do you think that agriculture in the county of Bauska is ecological or sustainable? (Why/why not) 22. Is your farm based on organic farming? Since we conducted semi-structured interviews, the formulation of those questions varied, and additional questions were added if required. 18