Reality vs. Expectations in the Implementation of Urban Agricultural Projects—A Polycentric Governance Analysis

Population growth and urbanization are threatening food security. Urban agriculture is therefore a solution for urban food production and distribution. This paper investigates a multi-level governance framework to evaluate how local authorities implement their prescriptions at different levels of decision-making and objectives for urban agricultural projects and their role in building urban resilience. A qualitative assessment based on interviews and fieldwork over two periods in 2023 and 2024 was conducted with stakeholders from different entities in the Normandy Region of France, including the metropolis, the city, and two projects’ presidents. The findings revealed a positive alignment on polycentric governance between different entities in terms of socio-economic integration, climate improvement, and nutritional diversity, all of which were achieved by the cases evaluated. Additionally, local authorities are seeking to achieve urban food self-sufficiency in order to reduce the scale of food imports, thus highlighting a limitation and challenging aspect of this study, given that urban areas are compromised by population density, limited space capacity, and the impermanence of projects. This investigation clearly shows that using this combined systematic approach of interviews and fieldwork provides an in-depth understanding of authorities’ needs and assesses the existence of polycentric governance compliance across multiple units.