Land ‘outside the development zone’ is an increasingly scarce commodity. It constitutes Malta’s remaining, but tenuous, connection with farming and the countryside. It is the last remaining area where Maltese and tourists can walk, picnic and enjoy the freedom of the austere beauty of the countryside.
The abuses committed in ODZ areas have been a running indictment of the weaknesses in the planning authority’s oversight of the countryside ever since its establishment in 1992. The current system accounts for probably the most justifiable complaints against Mepa’s stewardship of the environment.
Mepa has now started the process of consolidating the various policies applicable to land use in ODZ areas into one policy document, a long overdue exercise since current policies are scattered throughout a number of documents. The ODZ review document has a number of objectives one of which deals with agritourism and its aim of providing “new opportunities for agricultural diversification by farm gate sales, visitor attractions and agritourism accommodation”.
At face value, the encouragement of agritourism, and its close cousin ecotourism, is a desirable objective and, indeed, long overdue. The danger is that agritourism projects might open a back door to speculative construction developers, not farmers, moving in to build new (small) hotels or country houses on virgin ODZ land. This would be the negation of the very purpose of agritourism, which is to allow local families and tourists to enjoy an authentic rural experience with farming families and rural artisans in open countryside.
While the proposed new policy would permit farmers to develop properties for agritourism on a plot of land at least 60 tumoli in size, a clause in the proposal allows private, non-farming individuals (that is, by any other name, property developers) to enter into a ‘contractual partnership’ with farm owners .
Moreover, while in Italy, for example, agritourism has been established on a model of about 10 beds per unit, the policy here would allow for 20 – encouraging bigger developments. The whole thrust of the proposed agritourism project appears to favour the insertion of alien and bigger construction developments into ODZ areas which are already under severe threat from creeping urbanisation and poor planning management.
Agritourism should be driven by agriculture as an instrument for building a sustainable rural development strategy. If properly planned, it could bring back many part-time farmers to full-time rural employment and be a shot in the arm for the dwindling agricultural community. To be successful, however, agritourism ventures need to be run by the farmers, assisted by their immediate family, with the tourist treated as part of that family.
Linking the tourist’s stay with other countryside and agricultural pursuits – from walking to grape and olive picking to bird-watching – will produce a unique experience and provide a new dimension to Malta’s tourism product. Farm gate sales and authentic farmer-operated small restaurants, serving typically Maltese food and making use of fresh farm products, should also be encouraged.
None of this should require major construction development. On the contrary, utilising already existing, abandoned rural buildings will only add to the authenticity of the experience.
A properly formulated agritourism policy should serve to revitalise the part-time agricultural community. But it must not act as a Trojan Horse for further ODZ construction development.