A A evolved from the purely production mode to multi-functional urban agriculture, fulfilling both social and ecological and social both fulfilling agriculture, urban multi-functional to mode production purely the from evolved b demands. At present, the practice of UA as well as the number of rural to urban migrants is growing rapidly in peri- in rapidly growing is migrants urban to rural of number the as well as UA of practice the present, At demands. urban Beijing. Through Multi-stakeholder Process for Action planning and Policy Design (MPAP) methodology and four and methodology (MPAP) Design Policy and planning Action for Process Multi-stakeholder Through Beijing. urban in-depth case studies, we can see that UA activities are playing very important roles in reshaping peri-urban Beijing. peri-urban reshaping in roles important very playing are activities UA that see can we studies, case in-depth Land use in 1980s and 2004 and 1980s in use Land s s Socially, UA induces the emergence of new migrant communities. While migrants rebuild their social network, they are they network, social their rebuild migrants While communities. migrant new of emergence the induces UA Socially, In Beijing, urban agriculture (UA) experienced a corkscrew development with its role changing in decades: It has It decades: in changing role its with development corkscrew a experienced (UA) agriculture urban Beijing, In changed by the city as well, which has also changed the local community. The new comers are on their way to creat- to way their on are comers new The community. local the changed also has which well, as city the by changed t ing a new balance. Physically, urban and peri-urban farmland limits urban sprawl, supplies agricultural products for products agricultural supplies sprawl, urban limits farmland peri-urban and urban Physically, balance. new a ing r everyday life, and reserves urban green spaces for recreation and leisure for citizens in Beijing, which has changed the changed has which Beijing, in citizens for leisure and recreation for spaces green urban reserves and life, everyday landscape and land use and land cover (LUCC) pattern greatly. Under Beijing's land policy, the concentric configura- concentric the policy, land Beijing's Under greatly. pattern (LUCC) cover land and use land and landscape a tion spatial allocation through multi-functional UA is formed, which at the same time due to migrants' UA activities are activities UA migrants' to due time same the at which formed, is UA multi-functional through allocation spatial tion creating harmful and low efficient land use pattern which should be of concern. of be should which pattern use land efficient low and harmful creating c K t e y P H w E o O R r d I W s s -U : U Urban Agriculture; Migrant Communities; Peri-urban Beijing; Social Impact; Physical Restructuring. Physical Impact; Social Beijing; Peri-urban Communities; Migrant Agriculture; Urban U R U B R A B N A Zhang Feifei,CaiJianming&LiuGang N B B A E A I J G I N R G I C ? U L T U R E I I S R R E S H A P I N G

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open house international Vol 34, No.2, June 2009 How urban agriculture is reshaping Peri-Urban Beijing? INTRODUCTION income especially to migrants in peri-urban areas after local farmers turn to non-agricultural jobs in As in most of other developing countries (Maxwell, cities which they think are more profitable. In doing 1995; FAO, 2001; de Zeeuw, 2004), urban agri- so new migrant farmer communities continue to culture (UA) is an ancient practice. In China, that emerge, leading to social network re-integration has recently become the focus of attention for a issues (Ramirez, 1997). On the other hand, it wide range of professionals associated with urban changes land use and land cover (LUCC) pattern management, urban planning and agriculture in when new and expanding businesses and residen- this country (ETC-RUAF, 2001). Since the econom- tial areas push the urban boundaries far into the ic reforms, which took place in China after 1980s, areas surrounding the city, especially by reserving the unusual urban-rural income gap lead to an green spaces for recreation, in large tracks of farm- amazingly rapid increased migration from rural to land. Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming, Liu Gang Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming, urban areas with a dominant pattern of family Social and economic development in peri- migration and circular migration in response to the urban Beijing also leads to the changing of farming relaxation of long-standing restricting residential system. At present, peri-urban agriculture in Beijing policy (Zhao, 1998). It has been estimated that is mainly undertaken by migrant farmers bringing over the past 30 years, more than 300 million peo- great social and physical changes to the peri-urban ple have successfully transferred their residence and area as well. Taking UA development in peri-urban have a job in one of the rapidly growing cities of Beijing as an example, especially from the perspec- China, and it is expected that this trend will contin- tive of migrant farmers, this paper aims at giving a ue in the coming 15-20 years (Cai et al., 2007). brief picture of how urban it impacts and reshapes Moreover, quite a number of migrants to cities have peri-urban Beijing socially and physically,. been found staying in the peri-urban areas that have turned to UA for survival. Gradually, UA, as an active outcome in the BACKGROUNDS AND process of urbanization, and agricultural develop- METHODOLOGY ment and interaction between them, has begun to play important roles in reshaping peri-urban areas As the capital and one of the biggest cities in economically, socially as well as physically (Nugent, China, Beijing is one of the most favorite destina- 2002). On one hand, it provides stable high tions for migrants, the municipality of which is divid-

Table 1. The Four phases of UA development in Beijing open house international Vol 34, No.2, June 2009 How urban agriculture is reshaping Peri-Urban Beijing? 34, No.2, June 2009 How urban agriculture is reshaping Peri-Urban open house international Vol 16 Table 2. Population in case study areas Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming, Liu Gang Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming, ed into 16 districts and 2 counties, covering an Chaoyang is bigger than that in Shunyi. For exam- area of 16,808 sq. km. Millions of people have ple, Huangguang village has more than two times migrated to Beijing in search of jobs and econom- migrants to local people. ic security. A one percent sampling population sur- Questionnaire and deep sample survey, and vey in 2005 found that there were nearly 3.6 mil- Multi-stakeholder Process for Action planning and lion migrants in Beijing, of which 80,000 were Policy Design (MPAP) method were used in the directly involved in agricultural activities, and up to research. MPAP framework is a methodology 524,000 were engaged in related activities. In including Participatory Rapid Assessment (PRA), Beijing, UA experienced a corkscrew development action plan and M&E. PRA is to know the physical and its role evolved in decades (Cai, 2006a). Key situation of study area, in which GIS method was actors and functions of UA in the four steps by the used to compare UA's impact ton the land use pat- timeframe are different accordingly (See Tab. 1). tern. Literature review and field study also helped in Four villages in Chaoyang and Shunyi district illustrating the land use change. The PRA diagnoses as part of the RUAF (resource centers on urban directly and indirectly stakeholders, then by using agriculture and food security) project were selected questionnaire and interview stakeholders' issues for case studies especially for the social impact and concerns are noted. Based on that the most analysis. Chaoyang district is near to built-up area important issues for all were diagnosed and the and under intensive peri-urban process. Its land use action plan (policy advice) was put forward through type varied greatly. Shunyi district is located in mid- multi-stakeholder forums. In this whole process, dle suburb, about 40 km away from the center of built-in monitoring and assessment was used. The Beijing. It is the traditional bread basket, where the framework of MPAP in this research is shown in land use is relatively stable. There are a certain Fig.1. Besides these, GIS software and LUCC number of migrants in each case study villages analysis were also used for physical impact analy- (Tab.2). The number of migrant farmers in sis.

Figure 1. The methodology of the study

17 Beijing? 34, No.2, June 2009 How urban agriculture is reshaping Peri-Urban open house international Vol open house international Vol 34, No.2, June 2009 How urban agriculture is reshaping Peri-Urban Beijing? Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming, Liu Gang communities are changingorevolving. built up,andtherelationships amongdifferent farmers cometocity, new communitieshavebeen some extent(Zhangetal., 2007b).Asthemigrant contradiction betweenlocal andmigrantfarmersto chances togetahigher-paid job.Thisrelieves the advantagesbringthemmore But, theclose-to-city migrant farmerswhomayderiveprofitsfromthem. for theyownthelandrights.Theyarehostileto farmers thelocalarevestedinterestgroup historical macropolicy. Comparedtothemigrant group comparedtourbancitizensduenational of UA activities,localfarmersaredisadvantaged with localcommunities.Astheimportparticipator consequent problemoftheirchangingrelationship emerging communitiesofmigrantfarmersandthe urban Beijingcouldbeseenintwoareas:The UA activity'simpactonthesocialstructureofperi- S U o A 18 c Figure 2. 2. Figure i A a A l c C c h T a I n V g Migrant farmers' humble house and surrounding environment surrounding and house humble farmers' Migrant I e T s E S ' I I M P A C T ronment. tagion, which worsentheairqualityand livingenvi- about, suchasinfestation of mosquitoesandcon- series ofenvironmentproblems werebrought of themarediscardedaround orcomposted.A plant vegetablesinthecase studyareas.Over70% are usedbythemajorityas mostmigrantfarmers With regardtoagriculturalwaste,rottenvegetables coal eitheroutoftraditionortokeepdowncosts. no heating, andmanyresidentsusefirewood ple andusuallylocatedoutside.Thehomeshave barely furnished.Kitchensandtoiletsareverysim- suring between20-40squaremeters,andare greenhouses. Theirhomesaresmall,usuallymea- humble dwellingsbesidetherentedfarmlandor in theproductionchain.Theyusuallybuildtheir such asbuildingdwellingsandfindingtheirposition social network.Theyencounterseveraldifficulties challenge ofbuildinganewcommunityand After comingtothecity, migrantfarmersfacethe T T c c h h o o e e m m s s m m t t a a u u t t u u n n s s i i t t o y y o f f e e m m e e r r g g i i n n g g m m i i g g r r a a n n t t f f a a r r m m e e r r s s ' '

Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming, Liu Gang Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming,

Figure 3. Migrant children may grow up confused

One of the reasons for these poor living con- innovative migrant farmers, in cooperation with ditions is that many migrant farmers initially do not local existing farmers' cooperatives, to improve the see this "city lifestyle" as a long-term situation. But as relatively weak ties among migrant farmers into their incomes improve, they start investing in their strong cooperatives to enhance the process of inte- homes for example, by adding LPG and electricity. gration and as such facilitate the migration of more Access to financing is also difficult for farmers to Beijing (Zhang et al., 2007a). migrant farmers. Most farmers rely on informal pri- Though they work and live in the urban cen- vate loans, which have been affected by the reform ters, migrant farmers do not have formal connec- of the rural banking system in China, further weak- tions to the city. They often live at a distance from ening the uncertain position of migrant farmers. the local communities and keep on their original Both when buying inputs for their farms and when lifestyles. Ties with their home towns are quite strong selling their produce, migrant farmers are almost and most of the migrant farmers go back home one always at a disadvantage, because of their lack of to two times each year, have regular contact with money and information. Initially, the city had a their relatives, and send home remittances. restrictive registration policy for migrants, but this Because of the high education costs in the city, situation has improved considerably. Other major some children attend school at home and are taken problems migrant farmers (and other migrants) now care of by their grandparents, so often families are face include the high cost of education and the rel- dispersed. atively low quality of schools. The incomes of most migrant farmers are higher after migration to the city, increasing on The process: Social conflict or social inclusion? average from 350 to 500 euros per person per After arriving in the city, new migrant farmers need year, but still lower than the average of local farm- to build a network to protect themselves and strive ers 800 euro. The cost of living in the city is higher to earn profits in an unknown environment. This than in the rural areas. The average "daily-life" includes uniting with other migrant farmers from dif- expenditure per year is about 400 euros, which is ferent provinces, compromising to satisfy local substantially lower than the average expenditures stakeholders and strengthen their original networks. on production of about 1,500 euros and sav- Under current government policy, it is possible for ings/remittances 1,000 euros.

19 Beijing? 34, No.2, June 2009 How urban agriculture is reshaping Peri-Urban open house international Vol Usually migrant farmers send a big part of ing available farmland. their earnings back home and thus they save very There is a noticeable trend among migrant little for their own expenses in the city. The resulting farmers to develop and organise themselves from lack of funds makes it difficult for them to buy inputs the first stage of selling their products directly to the in the growing season. Migrant farmers have three consumers, through the next step of using interme- main sources from which to borrow money: diaries and finally to selling through cooperatives, People living in Beijing who come from the thereby consistently increasing their profits and sav- same region. This is very common since migrant ing time. In this way migrant farmers are connected farmers' social networks as defined by Chinese rural to the city and contribute to the building of com- tradition are based on and strengthened by familial munities. and local ties. Migrant farmers have strong links to their Other migrant farmers. This is possible home towns and only gradually develop connec- Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming, Liu Gang Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming, because the farmers live in close communities (and tions to other migrants and to local communities in are often rather isolated from the local community). the new city. Some older migrant farmers would like Local farmers. This is only an option if the to go back home when they get more aged, but borrower and lender know each other well and trust young people in the survey mentioned that they each other, i.e. after the migrant farmer has been in would like to continue farming in the city. Migrant Beijing for several years and is thus more integrat- farmers develop a relationship with local communi- ed. ties initially only through the market, as it is difficult Migrant farmers sell their grains, vegetables to develop new social contacts. Farmers often sell and fruits in the following ways: (i) retailing door-to- products jointly and generally collaborate to a high door, which is the most popular way; (ii) directly at degree, though they may quarrel over things such wholesale markets; (iii) to re-sellers or restaurants; as the order of using well for irrigation. Migrant (iv) through farmers' organisations; and (v) through farmers' situation makes them keep houses and agro-tourism arrangements (field picking). For land both in the city and in their home towns, which instance, migrant farmers in Shunyi sell their grains is a waste of social resource. directly to the nearby grain storehouse. In some cases, migrant farmers organise themselves in a cooperative, as in Chaoyang, where the migrant UA IMPACT: PHYSICAL farmers jointly acquired access to farmland and dis- RESTRUCTURING tributed it among themselves. Such cooperatives also organise their production and seek marketing UA not only changes the relationship among channels. In this process, some "elite" migrant farm- migrant farmers and their host and guest commu- ers emerged playing the role of leaders to organize nities, but also restructures the physical land cover, the gang in each production sectors. For the return, and in the process reshapes peri-urban Beijing. Fig. they can get some benefit, like agency fee for seek- 5. Illustrates this LUCC change from 1980 to 2004

Figure 4. Migrant farmers sell their products in different ways open house international Vol 34, No.2, June 2009 How urban agriculture is reshaping Peri-Urban Beijing? 34, No.2, June 2009 How urban agriculture is reshaping Peri-Urban open house international Vol 20 egy after1995.Italsounofficiallyincluded(multi- adopted sustainabledevelopmentasitsmainstrat- Olympic park. with hydrophyteonapartofthesitecurrent activities. Fig.8 pointsoutwhereusedtobealake progressively reducestheavailableareaforUA sprawl occupiesfarmlandinthemarginregionand restructuring impactareasfollows. in Beijing. Thethreemainaspectsofphysical Figure 5. 5. Figure Figure 6. 6. Figure construction However, theBeijingmunicipalgovernment Firstly, itcanclearlybeseenthattheurban Land use in 1980s and 2004 and 1980s in use Land Part of current Olympic park site before site park Olympic current of Part culture ineach zone(Caietal,2006b). specific strategyforthedevelopment ofurbanagri- The BeijingUrbanAgricultural Policy identifiesa of differenttypesagriculture andotheractivities. land andwater, whichhas ledtothedevelopment areas) havedifferentagricultural assets,suchas belt, themountainousarea,andsurroundingrural belt, theinnersuburbanouter structure isformed.Various belts (i.e.theinnercity tion process,aconcentricconfigurationspatial agriculture development(seeFig.8) andurbaniza- agement (Caietal.,2006b). andecologicalman- agriculture likeagro-tourism well asbypromotingotherfunctionsofperi-urban changes intheagriculturalproductionstructureas district governmentsofBeijing, bothbystimulating fore, becameakeyobjectiveofthemunicipaland cultural landinurbanandperi-urbanBeijing, there- land uses.Theenhancementofthevalueagri- rable andcompetitivewithothertypesofurban government, unlessitseconomicreturniscompa- the citycannotbeeffectivelyprotectedbylocal the convictionthatagriculturallandinandaround and soon.The1995Land UsePolicy isbasedon tourism, ecologicalprotection,foodprocessing, cific function,suchasgrainproduction,agro- since alllandinBeijingwaszonedandgivenaspe- functional) urbanagricultureinitslandusepolicy, Secondly, throughmulti-functional urban 21

open house international Vol 34, No.2, June 2009 How urban agriculture is reshaping Peri-Urban Beijing? Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming, Liu Gang Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming, Liu Gang Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming,

Figure 7. The second green belt in peri-urban Beijing

At last, it should also be seen that the land CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSIONS use pattern could be of low efficiency due to migrants' UA activities. In 1980s, the character of In Beijing, UA has proved to be a powerful devel- suburban agriculture was mainly big-scale produc- opment force and significant influential factor for tion to serve urban residents' basic living. However, peri-urban areas. Along with Beijing's social and the UA nowadays is multi-functional, with migrant economic development, UA experienced a households' participation by the way of renting corkscrew development with its role changing in small plots. The advantage of this special way is decades: moving from the purely production mode easy to see-the function of each small plot is to multi-functional urban agriculture, fulfilling both enhanced and diversified-but it also causes a dis- social and ecological demands. order and could result into low efficiency land use At present, UA is significantly contributing to pattern, due to lack of long-term planning and well- peri-urban development, and city markets. In addi- organized migrant farmers communities and activi- tion, people's lifestyles benefit a lot from it. ties. Nevertheless, there are still many risks and chal- The reason for this low efficiency and harm- ful land use pattern is linked to how migrants get access to land. Farmland in Beijing is owned by vil- lage committees. The only way for a migrant farmer to get access to land is to rent it directly from the local village committee or through one of the local farmers. Since June 2004, the Beijing government has been promoting "the transfer of the contractual right of land" to make it easier for migrants to lease land. In reality, though, migrant farmers' right to land is not clear, and most often control remains with the land owner, and therefore, they do not like to invest more and improve the efficiency because of unclear tenure (Zhang et al, 2007a). Figure 8. Orchid nursery in Xiaotangshan park open house international Vol 34, No.2, June 2009 How urban agriculture is reshaping Peri-Urban Beijing? 34, No.2, June 2009 How urban agriculture is reshaping Peri-Urban open house international Vol 22 Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming, Liu Gang Zhang Feifei, Cai Jianming,

Figure 9. Specific strategy for the development of urban agriculture in each zone in Beijing lenges that need to be appropriately recognised REFERENCES and minimized. For instance, the production is often associated with health risks through the use of CAI J., 2006a, "Peri-urban Agriculture Development in polluted urban water (Cofie, 2003). And the chal- China," VAN VEENHUIZEN R. (ed.) 2006, Cities Farming for lenge for UA also derives from it being in most the Future: Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive cases in a status of semi-official recognition with Cities, ETC-Urban Agriculture, Manila. Philippines: 79-81. limited active support from city government, or even in conflict with city planners or health authorities CAI J., LIU S., YANG Z., YUAN H., JIANG F. 2006b, "The with respect to land tenure and water use (Mireria, Beijing Urban Agriculture Policy Guidelines: A milestone," 2007). The coming in of migrant farmers leads a Urban Agriculture Magazine, 16: 32-34. sensitive relationship with local community, some other issues such as how to deal with and guide this CAI J., WANG G., and YANG Z. 2007, "Future Trends and relationship are worth studying to help the process Spatial Patterns of Migration in China." Population Research of integration. All these should be studied further, 31 (5): 9-19. especially from the view of urban authorities, policy makers and planners, to adapt their policies to the COFIE O. O., Van VEENHUIZEN R., and DRECHSEL P. growing role of multifunctional UA to ensure its role 2003, “Contribution of Urban and Peri-urban agriculture to in reshaping peri-urban Beijing. food security in Sub-saharan Africa,” Paper to be presented at the Africa session of 3rd WWF, Kyoto, Japan.

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Authors’ Addresses: ZHANG Feifei, CAI Jianming Department of Urban Geography and Urbanization, Institute of Geographical Sciences & Natrual Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Zhang Feifei: [email protected] Cai Jianming: [email protected]

LIU Gang Research Institute of Economics and Technology, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). [email protected] or [email protected] open house international Vol 34, No.2, June 2009 How urban agriculture is reshaping Peri-Urban Beijing? 34, No.2, June 2009 How urban agriculture is reshaping Peri-Urban open house international Vol 24