On 4 March 2025, over 100 stakeholders from administration, agriculture, civil society, NGOs, and academia convened in Hamburg to kick off the participatory process for developing the city's Zukunft Agrar+ 2045 strategy. The aim: to jointly develop a long-term vision for Hamburg's agricultural sector that will inform practical measures and shape the city's transition toward sustainability and climate neutrality.

Following the welcome by Dr. Ina Tjardes (BUKEA), Prof. Dr. Klaus Overmeyer (urban catalyst), Julia Jägle (Ecologic Institute) and Prof. Antje Stokman (HCU Hamburg) outlined the guiding questions, structure, and milestones of the three-phase strategy process.

Challenges and the Need for Action

In their expert inputs, Jana Hoppe (BUKEA) and Prof. Antje Stokman highlighted the major challenges facing Hamburg’s agricultural sector: climate change, biodiversity loss, land-use competition, shortage of skilled workers, and the interface between rural and urban systems. The strategy aims to provide a framework for action that is both ambitious and practical, with strong links to parallel planning processes such as the Hamburg Spatial Development Framework and the Open Space Strategy.

Interactive Formats: Survey and "Future Pathways" Dialogue

A Mentimeter survey captured participants' professional backgrounds and thematic priorities – with biodiversity, regional value chains and climate resilience ranking highest. Topics such as digitalisation, technology, and research were of comparatively less interest.

This was followed by a "Future Pathways" dialogue, in which participants worked in small groups to discuss 30 pre-defined trend impulses. Julia Jägle (Ecologic Institute) introduced the session with an overview of the trends, structured into key transformation pathways such as climate protection, biodiversity, regional value chains, access to land, economic viability, new concepts for cities, agriculture and skilled workers as well as digitalisation and research. The goal: to identify relevant trends for Hamburg and formulate forward-looking objectives.

Key Discussion Areas

• Climate protection, adaptation & resilience: Topics included water-saving irrigation, rainwater use, and renewable energies along the entire value chain, especially in greenhouse agriculture. Participants stressed the need for climate-neutral operations, supported by grid expansion and new heat models.
• Regional (Organic) Value Chains: Communal catering was seen as a driver for regional product demand and behavioural change, supported by clear procurement targets (e.g. 90-100% organic) and long-term support structures.
• Agricultural Landscapes & Biodiversity: Emphasis was placed on synergies between agriculture and nature conservation, supported by concepts like agroforestry, forest gardens, and biodiversity-friendly practices backed by advisory services and incentives.
• Access to and protection of land: Access to and securing agricultural land was emphasised as a fundamental prerequisite for the agriculture in Hamburg. Calls were made for the strategic safeguarding of urban land – including long-term, transparent allocation processes and ecologically and socially orientated lease models.

The event underscored the strong interest in a sustainable reorientation of Hamburg's agricultural policy. At the same time, it revealed the need to clarify shared guiding principles and ensure practical implementability. The insights gathered during the event will feed into the next phase of the strategy process: the co-development of an integrated vision for Zukunft Agrar+ 2045.