Facts:
On Wednesdays, throughout the summer, between 14 and 16 o'clock, you will find Alnarp Farm outside Alnarpsgården where they sell seasonal fresh vegetables and more.
Alnarp Farm's web with contact information.
A vision of an on-campus farm for all – from idea to reality
Last changed: 11 July 2023
Alnarp’s Farm was built up from scratch by a group of MSc students from the Agroecology program at SLU Alnarp. Since years, there has been a wish among students at this program to have a space where theory can be put into practice.
In April this year, Alnarp’s Farm gave the short talk "A vision of an on-campus farm for all – from idea to reality" at Green Innovation Park at SLU Alnarp.
The farm, now situated at SLU campus Alnarp, is run as a small-scale horticultural farm working according to agroecological principles.
Many volunteers and customers
The farm has now managed to become financially self-sufficient and is since 2022 a non-profit organization, engaging 80 signed-up volunteers and delivering vegetables via box schemes to 26 households, many of these families residing in Lomma municipality.
New space
Since this year, the farm has been given a new space at Mellangård through a collaboration with Lönnstorp. Here, the market garden will continue delivering box schemed vegetables through Alnarp’s Farm’s CSA, whereas a planned food forest will serve as a space for research and experiments.
Plans for the future
In the future, Alnarp’s farm wishes to further integrate the farm socially at campus Alnarp and in Lomma, in order to serve as a community-building agent. The student farm managers highlighted that Alnarp’s Farm wishes to add to campus life through creating a livelier feeling at campus, build a community around the farm engaging SLU staff and students as well as residents in Lomma, and host events and research. One upcoming standing event is the Wednesday markets (info will be out soon at Alnarp’s Farm’s website).
Questions and answers
Questions from the audience included whether SLU researchers had been involved or showing interest in the farm, and the answer was that there had been interest but nothing concrete so far.
Also, the campus development process at Alnarp came up; What opportunities or challenges could this pose to Alnarp’s Farm? Here, the Alnarp’s Farm board had meet with faculty leadership who are very enthusiastic, and wishes to include the farm into the campus development plans.
The challenge rests in whether the farm would wish to be part of the “central” campus Alnarp in the future, or continue residing in Mellangård. However, there are no plans at this point to move; Alnarp’s Farm will stick with the land they have now and work with that.
Text by Tove Stenius, Unit for Collaboration and Development.