Perception of Land Scarcity by Peri-Urban Farmers

Farmers in peri-urban regions face many problems, among which land scarcity is a major one according to literature. However, as indicated by a survey among farmers in the peri-urban region around Brussels, land scarcity is not perceived as a problem by all farmers to the same extent. Based on econometric analysis, the survey results show that perception of land scarcity is mainly influenced by differences in landownership and perceived ratio between farm land prices and real land prices.Changes in each of these variables will lead to a shift in the problems a farmer faces and will therefore stimulate different farming or land use strategies.