Antwerpse Kempen - Belgium

LAG Antwerpse Kempen - Belgium

1 Analysis of the region

- Agriculture

The Leader+ region ‘Antwerpse Kempen’ is a rural, non-urban region with a strong agriculture, mainly dairy farms and breeding stations. The region has a very typical sandy soil. Other important features are a high-level educational system for agriculture, a dense concentration of consumers and a long-term spatial mortgage.

- Tourism

Mainly camping sites, vacation villages and social tourism. Rural tourism is rather undeveloped. A high concentration of recreation parcs, who monopolize the short-term tourism. The region is ideal for cycling with an important presence of nature and culture?

2 The composition of the region

The region is composed by 5 villages: Geel, Lille, Balen, Kasterlee, Meerhout. In total it counts 98.000 inhabitants with a population density is 271 inhabitant per square kilometer.

3 Theme and goals

THEME 3: Adding value to local products. More specifically the goal is to facilitate the access to the market for small production structures by creating collective measures.

The operational goal is to increase the income of agricultural companies and to improve the image of agriculture and countryside.

KEYSTONES:

- innovation in a multifunctional agriculture (educational – recreational – tourist)
- to improve the image of agriculture and horticulture
- to maximize the use of the assets of the countryside in the ‘experience economy’
- to stimulate the general tourism in the region by improving and promoting the rural tourism