About us

The region is represented by the Nord Pas de Calais regional council, chaired by a President and a general assembly made up of 113 directly elected members. The regional council is in charge of spatial planning, economic development, transport, and education.

Agriculture, in association with the food industry, is a main economic activity in the Nord Pas de Calais region. Competitive agriculture covers two thirds of the region. Nord Pas de Calais is therefore full of large, green open spaces, and agriculture covers most of non urbanised areas. However more than 50% of the farms are located in peri-urban areas.

Natural spaces are also protected thanks to three regional parks (Avesnois, Caps and Marais d’Opale and Scarpe Escaut).

Nord Pas de Calais contains 16 000 farms, representing 30 000 agricultural workers. Regional food industries are therefore able to take advantage of locally produced agricultural goods. Nord Pas de Calais is the biggest French regional producer of potatoes, endives, chicory, peas, chrysanthemums and dried beans.

As far as agriculture is concerned, the region undertakes challenges to modernise small farms, to support young farmers, to promote agricultural diversity and innovation while respecting the environment, and developing food industries.

The Nord Pas de Calais Regional Council thus wants to help farmers cope with the advantages and disadvantages of the peri-urban location. There are indeed many problems: problems related to land property, neighbours, and urban pollution which are important in the region. Yet the citizens, being local consumers, represent a real potential of economic development and developing peri-urban agriculture also allows us to promote agricultural viability and sustainability and to reinforce links between citizens and the agricultural world.

The Nord Pas de Calais Regional Council is part of the PURPLE network for many reasons. At a local level, working on peri-urban agricultural issues and supporting peri-urban projects financially demonstrates our objective of protecting agriculture in these areas.
At a European level, lobbying with other PURPLE regions demonstrates to the EU institutions the importance of peri-urban agriculture, and the reinforces the need to develop more exchanges and trans-national projects on this issue.

General data:

Last updated: 30 April, 2012