City Farming Mar04

63Gobar Times, March 15, 2004 Down To Earth supplement

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Gobar Times, a Down To Earth supplement. Produced by the Environment Education Unit of Centre for Science and Environment, 41 Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110062Ph: 2995 6110, 2995 5124, 2995 6394 Fax: 2995 5879 Email: [email protected] Website: www.cseindia.org, www.gobartimes.org Bangalore Office: Shiva Apartments, 1st floor, 77/6, Nandidurg Road, Bangalore 560046 Ph: 51289883/81 Email: [email protected] Editor/Design: Rustam Vania Copy / Research: Sunil Rajguru, Rachita Jha Design: Rina Upadhyaya, Kirpal Singh Printed at: Thomson Press (India) Ltd, Faridabad

Dear Gobar Times Readers,

Is your city a dead end in terms of what you consume or is it a living urban landscape that reuses and

recycles all materials in a productive and efficient fashion — just like an healthy ecosystem? Imagine

‘edible cities’, with vast areas of agricultural plots, rooftop and terrace farms,

parkland that grows fruits and vegetables in every available space.

Urban Agriculture (UA) is a growing international movement. In a sense people

are rediscovering what the ‘poor’ farmers of traditional rural and urban societies

have always been practicing. And its not just a romantic idea of ‘beautifying’ cities

with exotic plants. It’s dead serious business of providing food and jobs to poor

people and managing the enormous waste generated in cities across the

developing world. No wonder successful city farmers refer to their line of work as

“political horticulture”! UA makes ecological sense, does it make economic sense

in a country like India — where farmers, buffeted by global economic forces, are committing suicide

and dumping tomatoes on the road to protest against falling prices of their produce? GT takes a look

at the role of the modern ‘city farmers’.

– Pandit Gobar Ganesh

A name that connects you and yourlife, to the outside world. The manyuses of gobar in millions of Indianhomes is a wonderful example ofthe best use of natural resources. A tradition of wealth from waste.So can we learn to apply these environmental principles in our modern lives to achieve a sustain-able lifestyle and save ourselves andour planet?

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66 Gobar Times, March 15, 2004, Down To Earth supplement

CITY FARMER

We cityfolk consider ourselves to be verysmart. Not so, discovers Gobar Times.The modern city has a garangutan

appetite and is frightfully wasteful. It takes morethan it gives. It ingests tonnes and tonnes of cereals,meat, vegetables and fruits grown in rural areas farand wide; chomps, chews and digests all that food-stuff; converts some of it into human energy; burps,and then spews the remaining all out as organicgarbage and sewage. Nutrients inthis waste that should have beenrecycled back to the land that pro-duced the food, is instead dumpedinto and sealed in landfills or leakedinto rivers. Smart idea?

Vanishing croplandsWith more and more people headingtowards urban areas and the numberof cities increasing dramatically,something will have to be doneabout these wasteful consumption habits.

It is estimated that by 2030, 60 per cent of theworld's population will live in cities. During therural-urban population shift the cities have become

supermarkets of employment, technology andprocessors of agriculture produce. Precious farm-lands are being lost all over the world to these everexpanding cities. Who will feed these millions ofcityfolk?

City as an ecosystemIn a healthy ecosystem, nutrients are largely recy-cled. The urban ecosystem, however, is a dead end.

That means depletion of resources inareas outside the city and poisoningof places within it. Writes ToniNelson, a researcher at the WorldWatch Institute in Washington, "Thismassive shifting of nutrients fromrural to urban areas has alreadydiminished the vitality of many of theplanet's most productive croplands,grazing lands, and fisheries, and theprocess could accelerate as more andmore of the human population

concentrates in cities in the coming decades. It isalso creating a dilemma: how to feed the growingnumber of people who are far removed form their main sources of food, without unbalancing

Before the railroads,the internal

combustion engine, cold storage,

perishable foods had to be produced

within the city limits itself.

Edible CitiesEdible CitiesDear Cityfolk, here's why you need to grow food at home

CIP

COVER STORY


Why farm the city?To mitigate the two most intractable problemsfacing Third World cities — poverty and wastemanagement.

● LESS FOOD MILES: Cities import foodproducts at great distances, thereby increas-ing energy use and decreasing nutrition.Growing food in the city reduces the foodmiles from the land to the mouth.

● GREATER FOOD SECURITY: City produce supplements rural agriculture andhelps avoid food shortages. A step towardssustainable food management.

● LESS WASTE: Cities produce a lot of solidand liquid organic waste. This resource canbe recycled to grow food, thus reducinggarbage and pollution in the city.

● MORE INCOME: Poor families can sup-plement their income by practising urbanagriculture and middle class families can lookto it as a form of business.

● GOOD FOR THE SOUL: Believe it or not,but gardening at home has been known tostrengthen family ties. Thanks to communityfarming in the city, neighbourhoods havebecome socially cohesive and crime hasreduced.

and collapsing the ecosystems on which those people ultimately depend."

That’s where Urban Agriculture (UA) helps. UAputs vacant unused urban land to good productiveuse. All the rubbish like discarded containers, emptytins, plastic bags, styrofoam boxes along withunutilised terraces, rooftops and bal-conies become the 'fields' on whichcrops can be grown. Biodegradablewaste becomes organic fertiliser aftercomposting. That means less garbage,less pollution and more food. Besidesproducing affordable nutritious food-stuff for the urban poor in developingcountries, UA also generates moreemployment within the city. Smart idea!

Agriculture, an urban invention?Cities and farming have an ancient relationship. The idea of farming incities might seem strange initially to oururban ears. In the classic The Economyof Cities, Jane Jacobs argues that agri-culture is actually an urban invention,developed in cities which were firstfounded as centres of trade. As the

majority of people who arrive in the city become part oflarge squatter settlements within the city limits, it ischallenging city managers to assist the newcomers withjobs, shelter, social services, and proper environment.That’s why urban cultivation has been rediscovered indeveloping world cities, in recent years.

Toni Nelson in the World WatchMagazine again, "Political leaders havebeen slow to recognise and respond tothis dilemma. But in many cities resi-dents are not waiting. Both with andwithout official sanction, millions ofpeople are now producing food rightwhere they live–in empty lots, onrooftops, and in their own backyards."Estimates say that as many as 200 mil-lion people are engaged in UA theworld over. Half of Latin Americancities and 40 per cent of African onesare involved in urban agriculture. InRussia, 72% of all urban householdsraise food and in China, the 14 largestcities produce around 85 per cent oftheir vegetables.

Want to be a city farmer?

For the rich, growing your ownfood is in part a

luxury and a welcome changefrom supermarket

shopping. But for thepoor, it is often a

necessity.

68 Gobar Times, March 15, 2004, Down To Earth supplement

LATIN AMERICA

Till 1989, the USSR powered the Cubaneconomy. The Russians

sold Cuba oil at a discount andbought sugar from it at fivetimes the market rate. In factfrom 1959, when communistFidel Castro came to power to1989, when the communistregime collapsed in Moscow,85 per cent of Cuba's tradewas with the USSR.

Then in 1992, Americaslapped a trade embargo. By conventional economics,Cuba should have just collapsed. But it responded tothe crisis by restructuring it'sagriculture in the country.

Pesticides and fertiliserstocks dwindled. Oil was inshort supply. Transportation,refrigeration and storage costs had to be reduced and2.5 million strong Havana had to be fed.

The Cubans found answers to these problems inurban agriculture. The people took the situation intotheir own hands and started gardening in their homeson a massive scale. The Urban Agriculture Ministrydecided to back the urban farmers and made it a poli-cy of putting all the city's open land into production.

The gardens of Havana are small parcels of state-owned land, ranging from a few square meters

to several hectares, whichare cultivated by individualsor community groups.

The city now aims atfeeding itself entirely —with-out imports from either ruralCuba or anywhere else in theworld. Today, Havana rightlyclaims to be the leader ofurban agriculture in theworld.

The gardens of PeruWith 7 million citizens, capi-

tal Lima houses 30 per cent of Peru. The city wasgroaning thanks to rapid growth. UA was used as aninstrument to improve the living conditions of theurban poor.

Slums started growing food in a bid to feed them-selves and generate income by sell extra produce.After that, gardens were established in householdplots, schools, hospitals and public spaces.

No chemicals were used as fertiliser and solidwaste was used to produce compost, pests were

Organoponic gardening is taking root in central Caracas

amid the piles of garbage,bands of homeless beggars.

"Let's sow our cities with organic,hydroponic mini-gardens!"Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela

Pushed to a corner,three LatinAmerican countriesresort to urbanagriculture – local, organic.

"The main task of the revolutionshould be to produce food."

Cuban general Sio Wong

POLITICAL HORTICULTURE

A Cuban revolutionIf it was the socialist revolution of the fifties thatchanged the face of Cuba, it was the UA revolution of the nineties that transformed Cuba’seconomy, bringingwith it, it’s ownvocabulary.

Before 1989,UA was virtuallyunheard of inHavana, which ishome to 20 percent of Cuba’spopulation. Buttoday ‘organoponics’ and ‘hydroponics’ are buzzwords and the mushrooming farms and gardens of the capital are divided into five maincategories:

Huertos populares (popular gardens):Gardens privately cultivated by urban residents insmall areas throughout Havana.

Huertos intensivos (intensive gardens):Gardens cultivated in raised beds with a high ratio

of compost to soil and run either through astate institution or by private individuals.

Autoconsumos: Gardens and smallfarms belonging to and producing food

for workers, usually supplying cafeterias of particular workplaces.

Campesinos particulars: Individual small plotscultivated by farmers, largely working in thegreenbelt around the city.

Empresas estatales: Large farms run as stateenterprises, many with increasing decentralisa-tion, autonomy, and degrees of profit sharing withworkers.

controlled using domestic methods. The women con-verted household leftovers, chicken and guinea pigdung to manure. Wastewater was used where therewere water shortages.

Venezuela's choiceVenezuela is relatively well-off and rich in resources.But it decided to take inspiration from Cuba and prac-tice UA in a bid to prevent food shortages and be lessdependent on imports. Traditionally, more than half ofthe country's food needs are imported.

Organoponic gardening (See box) is taking root incentral Caracas amid piles of garbage, bands of home-less beggars, and tens of thousands of vehicles belch-ing out polluting gas fumes.

Inside Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters, soldiersof the crack Ayala armoured battalion supervised byCuban instructors have swapped their rifles for shovelsand hoes to tend neat rows of lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, coriander, and parsley.

Hydroponics: The cultivation of plants by placing the

roots in liquid nutrient solutions rather than in soil;

soil-less growth of plants.

Aeroponics: A technique for growing plants without

soil or hydroponic media. The plants are held above

a system that constantly mists the roots with nutrient-

laden water. Also called aeroculture. (See diagram below)

Organoponics: A term peculiar to Latin America. It

was originally the hydroponic systems converted to

organic cultivation by replacing the inert medium with

compost made from sugar waste.

In 1999, urban Cuba produced65% OF ITS RICE

46% OF ITS FRESH VEGETABLES

38% OF ITS NON-CITRUS FRUITS, 13% OF ITS ROOTS, TUBERS &

PLANTAINS

6% OF ITS EGGS


FLOATING PLATFORMWITH PLANTS

AIRSTONEAIR LINE

AIRPUMP

FOOD CIRCLEThe Food Circle is a production-consumption-recyclemodel. A celebration of cycles, this model mirrors allnatural systems and is based on the fact that all stable,biological and other systems function as closed cyclesor circles, carefully preserving energy, nutrients,resources and the integrity of the whole.

It links the many people involved in food productiontogether in interdependent, holistic ways. When weconceive of our food system as a circle, we acknowl-edge that we are connected with every other person inthat circle through the act of food production.Practically, a Food Circle is concerned with promotingthe consumption of safe, regionally grown food thatwill encourage sustainable agriculture and help tomaintain farmers, who will sustain rural areas.

The goal of a Food Circle is to develop a community-based, sustainable food system by reshaping the relationships that surround food. Our dominant foodsystem is globalized and industrialized, while FoodCircles seek to create a personalized and sustainablefood system. The Food Circle philosophy is built on fourfundamental principles borrowed from Green thinkingand systems theory. In sum, a Food Circle is aboutknowing the person who grows our food or who eatsthe food we grow.

Source: Food Circle Networking Project: http://foodcircles.missouri.edu


London city’s ecologicalfootprint is 125 times itssurface area, requiring theequivalent of the entireproductive area of Britainto sustain itself each year

Dependence on aglobalised foodeconomy is alsodisconnecting usfrom nature.

WHERE ON EARTH DID THIS COME FROM?

FOOD MILES

How much distance does your food travel from theland where it was produced, into the marketplace, tothe corner store, before it reaches your plate?

If food products must travel 2000 kms, they must besufficiently durable to withstand shipping. That, at thecost of palatability and nutritional content. The denatured, deflavored, industrial tomato is but thebest known exemplar of a process that has affectedmany fruits and vegetables. These processed foodsdepend on artificial colours, flavours, stabilizers,emulsifiers, sweeteners and preservatives.

Let’s get closer to our food chain by growing withinthe city itself. Urban agriculture gives the city a chanceto close the ecosystem loop and move towards sustainable cities. And let’s also consume fresher andmore nutritious food.

Source: www.sustainweb.org

The distance from which their food comesrepresents their separationfrom the knowledge of howand by whom what theyconsume is produced, processed, and transported.

Food in the United States travels an average of 2000 kms and changes hands half a dozen times before it is consumed (The Packer, 1992)

70 Gobar Times, March 15, 2004 Down To Earth supplement

MADE IN INDIA!

FOOD SHEDTo describe sustainable food systems, defining theorigins and destinations of food within a particularbioregion — the food shed — helps one to visualisethe actual ecological impact of what we eat.

The foodshed concept uses the analogy of a watershed to describe the area that is defined by astructure of supply. Food comes to most of us nowthrough a global food system, which is destructive of both natural and social communities. While corporations which are the principal beneficiaries ofa global food system now dominate the production,processing, distribution, and consumption of food,alternatives are emerging which together could form the basis for foodshed development.

For example In a New York supermarket, you canfind tomatoes from Mexico, grapes from Chile, lettuce from California, apples from New Zealand.But the chances of finding city-grown tomatoes,grapes, lettuce, strawberries, or apples in the samesupermarket is pretty dim, even when those cropsare in season locally. What is eaten by the greatmajority of North Americans comes from a global everywhere! And metropolitan India is fastcatching up.

Source: www.foodshed.wisc.edu

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HONG KONGRegarded as one of the densest large cities in theworld, it produces within its boundaries two-thirds ofthe poultry and close to half of the vegetables eatenby its citizens and visitors. All the nutrients taken toproduce the food are returned back to the city foodecosystem as the duck and chicken waste are used asfertilisers for the growing of vegetables.

SINGAPOREThe city farms between the high rise buildings, in itssuburban areas and the surrounding seas. Citizens ofSingapore consuming 70 kg per capita per year areself-reliant in the meat supply. Since 1974, mush-rooms have been grown on multistory stacking shelvesusing composts from agricultural waste such asbanana leaves and straw. Currently only 5 per cent ofthe 1,000 tonnes of vegetables eaten here daily aregrown locally. Malaysia supplies 45 per cent of thedemand, while the rest comes from Thailand,Indonesia, Australia and even far away Europe.

What does the city need to grow its own food?Just a little water, no soil. Singapore's first commercialaeroponics farm has arrived. Pioneers in this this farmuse aeroponics technology to grow vegetables.

Aeroponics has been tipped as one of the most appropriate technologies for urban agriculture andmicrofarming in warm climates.

PHILIPPINESThe early people of Manila were self-reliant in food.They used to fish and grow food crops along banks ofthe river, evidence of the earliest forms of urban agriculture. Today, nearly one-third of children inMetro Manila are underweight and one-fifth havestunted growth and are suffering due to undernutri-tion. Growing vegetable crops in recycled tin or plasticcontainers placed in the yard, on windowsills, and onrooftops is helping address undernutrition.

INDONESIAJakarta, the capital city of Indonesia houses almost 10million people. Unable to feed the city, most of thefood consumed is imported from the satellite cities.Urban farming spread quickly as a result of this crisis.Urban agriculture provides workers, landowners andother people involved, with a small but significantincome to support families at home, daily expenses aswell as expenses like school fees. Vegetables likespinach, lettuce and cabbage are sown and all crops

Asian feedbackAsian feedbackWaste of ducks,

chickens, pigs, cows,

humans, have all been

traditionally used in

Asian towns and cities

to grow food. Asians

are learning from

their past for food

security in the future.

ASIA

Young city farmers hardat work at a organic farmin Singapore


INDIA

are harvested. Homegardens (kitchen, dooryard orbackyard gardens) are commonly found in many partsof Indonesia. It typically has a very high diversity ofuseful plants and animals. These multi crop householdgardens produce three times the money value per unitof land as three-crop rice farming.

INDIAMumbai city farmer, Dr R T Doshi, began experiment-ing with food production on the terrace of his bunga-low in Mumbai after retiring at the age of 61. He hasperfected a method of growing fruits and vegetablesfor domestic consumption, which involves relativelylow labour input, organic production methods andvery high yields. Today he grows vegetables, pulses,fruits and cereals and has raised mango, fig and guavaplants and also harvested bananas and sugarcane onhis terrace farm. The method involves planting in

polyethylene bags or 45 gallon drums with the bottoms stuffed with biomass, such as sugarcanestocks from sugarcane juice vendors (something thatnormally goes to waste). One quarter of the bag isthen filled with compost and the remainder with soil.The system is suitable for any scale of operation in anyopen space. His methods have been adopted through-out Mumbai and also in neighbouring cities, gardens,and improving local environments, family nutritionand public health overall.

Srinagar’s Dal lake houses acres oflotus plants in full bloom across its wet-land ecosystem. It is not just a beautifulflower but also food. Lotus is harvested forits stems called nadru which are eaten allround the year. The lake is famous for its

floating gardens that carry out vegetable farming. Thegardens have been believed to have existed over severalgenerations and have been the source of food for thecity and source of livelihood for the urban farmers.

It is a type of water culture where weed rafts ofdifferent lengths floating on the lake are coveredwith thick layers of soil. The weed, over a period oftime, decomposes to function as the fertiliser for thevegetables to be grown in the floating gardens

including tomato, pumpkin, cucumber,radish and lots of other vegetables.Although the practice has been therefor many years, today when there ishigh militancy in the area, vegetable orlotus farming is the only choice ofincome for many in the city.

Kolkata Catch!In India, human waste and wastewater reuse in

agriculture is an age-old tradition. West Bengal

has 279 wastewater fed farms on an area of

4000 hectares, supplying more than 13,000

tonnes of fish per year. It is perhaps one of the

largest wastewater fed fish farming systems in

the world. This form of farming was started way

back during Second World War and even today

supplies a city with more than 14 million people

their daily demand for fish at the same time

supports the livelihoods of more than 30,000

people. The pond farms different species of fish

from local species rohu, catla to exotic fishes

and freshwater prawns as well. The city sewage

is first treated through

different methods devel-

oped by the fishermen

over the years. Fish

yields from wastewater

ponds are 2-4 times

higher than those from

ordinary fish. The city

gets its fish supply, the

city sewage gets solved,

recovery of nutrients that

would otherwise have

been lost in wastewater.

UA gives the city achance to close theecosystem loop and

move towards sustainable cities

Dr R T Doshi at his terrace farm Fish produced from city sewage in Kolkata

RANU GHOSH / CSE


HISTORY

Urban agriculture (UA) gained importancein the 1980s throughout the world withalmost a three-fold increase in Moscow,Russia and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania andother cities of Africa as massive shifts of

urban land from open space, institutional and transportation was used for agricultural production. Inthe poorest of poor countries such as Kenya andTanzania, three of every five families in towns andcities are engaged in urban agriculture. The trend alsospread to cities such as Bangkok where 60% of theland was farmed. Throughout the world there is along tradition of farming intensively in the cities. In allparts of the world, ancient civilisations developedurban agricultural systems to feed the cities. Examplesinclude Ghana, India, China, Iraq, Java, Pakistan,Guatemala, Mexico and Peru. The inten-sive production of perishables, smalllivestock, fish and poultry within the citywas essential to city life. Grains, fruitsand vegetables were shipped from thenearby countryside. In certain cultures crops such as mushrooms andmedicinal and culinary herbs were specially developed in urban areas. InLatin America, Aztec, Mayan and Incancities were self-reliant in perishablefruits and vegetables but also raisedsome grains within the confined hinter-land. Similarly towns and cities of earlycivilisations of Java and Indus valleyshow traces of high-intensity irrigated

farming systems. The Javanese aqua-terra systemcombining multi-crop water system and soil farmingsystems have still survived in some areas.

Like the Aztec aqua-terra chinampas in Mexico. AtTenochititlan, the site of Mexico city today, the Spanishinvaders in the 15th century found the largest city theyhad known at the time. A principal source of food pro-duction was a form of aqua-terra farming known aschinampas. Irrigation systems helped farmers to pro-duce three crops a year in areas that today give onlytwo crops. These city farmers also had sophisticatedmethods of soil improvement and insect control.Manula describe the use of human and animal waste inmixture with other waste materials to be used as inputsin agriculture. Cities' wastewater flowed into tanksand from tanks to irrigate fields.

Machu Picchu, the lost city of theInca appears to have been self-sufficientin food within walking distance. Themain city also had a suburban area thatcarried out intensive agriculture.

In the ancient systems various techniques such as sun reflectors inTigris and Euphrates were used to heatthe soil. At Machu Picchu standingwater of aqua-terra systems held offmountain frost. In Bolivia today thesun’s heat is stored in the adobe wallsof the greenhouse even today.

Cultures throughout history haveused their dwellings, workplaces, andcommunal spaces to produce food and

Modern colonial cities were planned and managed to have food production on the outskirts of the city

using "modern" agriculture and producing "European" crops. The great Scottish urban thinker, Patrick

Geddes, condemned these when he visited the city of Indore in India during the First World War: "from

the callous, contemptuous city bureaucrat at Delhi, I have now to tackle here the well-intentioned

fanatic of sanitation-perhaps an even tougher proposition. Instead of the 19th century European

panacea of "Everything to the sewer!"…the right maxim for India is the traditional rural one of

"Everything to the soil!"


ECOCITY

other basic needs. In Yemen, for example, some townsand cities have integrated high-rise architecture withorganic urban gardens over the last two thousandyears. These gardens use traditional techniques ofstacking layers of shrubs, vegetables, herbs and rootcrops under a canopy of date palms —mimicking theecological structure of natural forests.

In Europe compost using horse manure has beenused over the years to heat raised vegetable beds.Before modern urban sanitation systems were devel-oped in the late 19th century, urban agriculture wasthe main treatment and disposal of urban waste. Foodwas delivered by donkey carts to the markets and the

city wastes in turn were delivered to the fields — bothrural and urban.

For example, the Marais farming system of 19thcentury Paris. 100 years ago a sixth of the area of Pariswas used to produce annually more than 100,000tonnes of high-value of of season salad crops. A sustainable cropping pattern as it used approximately 1 million tones of stable manure produced each yearby horses, which provided power for the city's transport system. This system became famous inEurope in the late 19th century that very intensive horticulture using heavy inputs of biological origin isstill called French gardening today. In energy, massand money terms the inputs and output of the Parisianurban agro-ecosystem exceed those of present day fully industrialised crop production. In this system3-6 harvests a year were obtained through inter-crop-ping. Year round production was made possible by the heat and carbon dioxide released through themanure fermentation, shelter by two-metre highwalls, glass-covered frames and bell-shaped glass and

by straw mats used to cover the crops during severewinter. 50 kg of per capita of fresh salads, vegetablesand fruits were produced annually which exceededthe levels of consumption of these foods. Productswere exported to as far as London. The systemreached its maximum peak in the plate 19th century,its rapid decline can be explained by three factors: the virtual replacement of the horse by the motor car, competition for land within the city and competition from areas with more favourable climate outside the city-facilitated by the improvementin the transport system. This system of cultivationremains one of the most productive ones ever

documented. The productive biological recycling ofwaste products of the city's transport system contrastswith requirements and consequences of the presentday urban ecosystems. But today the accepted ideahas become the “the city beautiful” or the “cityclean”. Modern agricultural ways have replaced thetraditional ones in many developing cities. But there isquite revolution coming about as there are many citieswho are in a process to adopt the biointensive maraisystem.

The struggle to sanitise the cities has been wagedfor more than a decade now. But the systems areunsustainable because they shift increasing volumes ofwaste from one location to another within the urbanecosystem. With multiplication of urban populationsand the food systems becoming more unreliable urbanhunger multiplied with urban growth. In response UA became the solution to the city.

(Taken from the book, Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobsand Sustainable Cities, UNDP)

>> The struggle to sanitise the cities has been waged for more than a decade now. But the systems are unsustainable because they shift increasing volumes of waste from one location toanother within the urban ecosystem >>

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EDUCATION


Community gardens andschool gardens. Recre-ation and education.

Food for the soul and food forthought. At the start of the lastcentury, almost 80 percent ofthe population were raised onfarms. What a reality teacher!Now cityfolk in both the devel-oped and developing world arerecognising the values andethics of an agrarian lifestyle.City gardens can aid both urbanplanners and educators.

We do it togetherIn community gardens peopleshare land to grow plants,exchange resources, socialiseand cultivate a sense of "com-munity". Empty lots, apartmentcomplexes ground or land nextto social centres, land near tem-ples, mosques and churches canbe converted to community gar-dens. These gardens become valuable green spaces indensely populated neighborhoods.

Such gardens are mushrooming even in the US. Local residents, tired of vacant land, trash, andcrime are transforming vacant lots into communitygreen spaces with vegetables, flowers, sitting areas and playgrounds. It is estimated that there are15000 organised community gardens in the US. A reason for their growing popularity is that they address the unique needs of the particular neighborhood.

Towards sustainabilityAlso, many such gardens are environmentally sound. That'sbecause community gardenersare often immigrants from devel-oping countries or rural areas. Insome cases, they can't affordcommercial fertilisers and pesti-cides. So, they practice sustain-able ways of adding nutrients(composting and intercropping),conserving water (mulching,mounds and furrows), and con-trolling pests (like the use ofmarigolds to repel nematodes,use of soap solutions in place ofcommercial pesticides).

Rural gardeners retain traditional practices that weredeveloped before industrial agriculture.

We all learn togetherGrowing children and growingplants gel well together. It helps

them understand the connection between theirhealth, the food they eat, and where it comes from. Inaddition to that they learn plant science and ecology.School gardens have been known to increase theirconfidence levels too. Through simple science experi-ments and hands-on activities, schoolchildren are ableto see, smell, taste and touch plants.

Many of our schools offer students cold, concreteschool yards with chain link fences that make schoolslook more like prisons. By transforming the schoolground to include nature, the learning opportunities

LEARNING FROM SCHOOL GARDENS

� SCIENCE: ecological literacy

� ECONOMICS: rural and urban

� POLITICS: rich vs poor

� HEALTH: nutritious food

� ART: aesthetics

City farms provide children an opportunity to learn about ecology

and create their own

"Living laboratories"

NUTRITION


literally come alive. Schools need to redesign theirplay space to provide students with a healthy andsafe place to play, learn, and develop a genuinerespect for nature and each other.

School gardens can become mini-farms and asource of healthy, nutritious food, an opportunity forenvironmental restoration and a well of inspirationfor children, teachers and parents. School yards arean amazing land resource but, often neglected.

Also, educators say that outdoor classrooms are apriority. Students use outdoor classrooms to explorevarious outdoor themes like the weather.

Stepping outside the classroom to answer a question, plant seeds, or observe insects on flowersnot only adds variety to the curriculum, but also motivates many students who are less engaged in theusual class routines. Students who strain to sit still inclass may be captivated — and stimulated — watch-ing a beetle make its way through a just-turned pileof dirt. When students have the opportunity to asktheir own questions about things that interest themand discover the answers, they are taking vital stepsto becoming lifelong learners.

Teaching sustainabilityChildren are also introduced directly to the impacts ofour present global food production and delivery systems. They'll understand depletion of ecologically-productive lands for the purpose of growing cashcrops, pesticide, energy and water use, transporta-tion, climate change, international trade routes,nutrition, global economics and social justice issuesmuch better.

School gardens saves urban children from beingdetached from the food chain. For example in 2003,the Japan Slow Food Association asked 100,000 kidsto paint pictures to decorate the dinner table. Few ofthem drew real vegetables and fish. Most drew pictures of the plastic containers that line the shelvesof grocery stores.

Now that wouldn’t happen if you had a small garden with vegetables in your school yard.

Animation playgrounds

Extracts from a report based on research done by OliverGinsberg, Chairperson of the Association of AdventurePlaygrounds and Cityfarms (AKiB) in Berlin, on ninety suchprojects across six countries in Europe — what they contribute to sustainable urban development:

It was the Danish landscape architect C. Th. Sorensen whofirst recognized the importance of "skrammellegepladsen"(rubbish playgrounds), which should give children access tovarious construction play materials and the possibility to create their own play environment rather then provide themwith already furnished, neat play sites.

In the official programmes of sustainable developmentchildren and young people are obviously neglected. Withinthe 500 pages of the "Agenda 21" the world "child" or"children" appears just about 60 times, while the word"government" is used more than 1000 times! They are usu-ally just mentioned in connection with social infrastructurelike schools or day care centers. Their specific (play) needsare hardly mentioned, neither their need for open spacewithin the city. The fact that adequate play space tends to

disappear from the cities even within the frame of "vitaliza-tion" and "interior development" simply has no impact onthe minds of many political decision makers. This kind of play deprivation however is a very important part of the reason for increasing health problems and juvenile violenceas has paradoxically been acknowledged most strongly in the US lately.

The fact, that the contributions of adventure playgroundsand city farms to sustainable development are still underesti-mated in the public perhaps coincides with the fact, that children and their way of life which is inevitably playful arethemselves restricted to the parts of "extras" in the debateon sustainability. They are often reduced to some anony-mous upgrowing or future generations and their specific(play) needs and rights are hardly ever adequately addressedor, if their needs are articulated, it is usually done in such ageneral way that hardly any definite conclusions can bedrawn therefrom as far as urban planning is concerned,which should adjust to these needs.

"For more than ten thousand years, cultivation of land and the rearing of farm animals was a

"natural" part of civilization. Farming is the root of the urbanisation process, the dynamics of

which in turn has driven farming out of our daily experiences."


FAQS

Myth 1: Urban agriculture means kitchen gardening.Household and community gardening are an

important and a very easy individual based contribution towards farming.

But urban agriculture is not limited to the indi-vidual houses.It goes beyond that and looks at thefood system that feeds millions that live in the city.

Myth 2: Urban agriculture is a marginal activity ormeans of survival.

Urban agriculture means good access to food forthe poorest, a source of income and good food forthe stable poor, savings, nutritious and safe food forthe middle class and profits for entrepreneurs. Forthe poorest, it cuts expenses on fuel and foodsthat are by far the maximumincome spent areas bythis group. Also urbanagriculture is central tothe city’s economy andgenerates incomes andjobs within the city.

Myth 3: Urban agriculturegrabs land that could havebeen given higher price valueas rent. It is a bad investment.

Urban agriculture usually utilises land that iseither lying idle or unsuitable for other purposes.Or, it uses land that is allocated for other uses, thusgiving back higher values. Most cities have manyunused spaces in the city that can be made greenspaces. In Delhi, vast tracts of land are devoted tolawns. These can be used for urban agriculture.Lawns are aesthetic, but have no productive value,consume enormous amounts of water and are mainly for the rich. This passion for lawns has its origins in British colonial tradition.

Myth 4: Urban agriculture competes with and is lessefficient than rural farming.

The truth is that urban agriculture thrives onproducts that are less suited for rural farming andthat might be too costly for the urban poor.Mushroom and broccoli are two such examples.

Myth 5: Urban agriculture is unhygienic.Health problems are undoubtedly the most

serious consequence of inappropriately practicedurban farming. Pesticides, fertilisers and untreatedsewage can pollute the urban environment.Farming along the roadsides, where crops are susceptible to automobile exhaust, can lead to food contamination. However, appropriate urban agriculture is not harmful, but has the potential toimprove hygiene in the city because it uses pollutingwaste as a production input.

Myth 6: Urban agriculture causes pollution anddamages the environment.

Urban farming can cause pollutionof the soil, water and air and affect urbanareas adversely. The solution is to provideguidance and assistance to make it a saferindustry for farmers, consumers and theenvironment.

Myth 7: Urban agricul-ture is unsightly and aes-thetically inappropriatein the city.

Urban agriculturecreates green spaces in the

city, replacing vacant or unproductive spaces withinthe city into green and productive spaces, while atthe same time providing livelihood to the urbanpoor. If the fields in the rural villages are consideredbeautiful, why are plots of vegetables considered aneyesore?

Myth 8: Urban agriculture is an archaic, utopianconcept and cannot be created today.

In the past, western thought nurtured the con-cept of garden cities or farming in the city. Of late,"modernity" is equated to concrete cities. “Urban”is associated with "industrial" and “rural” with“agricultural”. This paradigm shapes the world oftoday. That is why urban agriculture has been omit-ted from urban planning requirements. Farming hasbeen positioned as an outdated and backward activity, not fit for the modern city by planners.

Urban Agriculture

MYTHS & REALITY

You don’t need land. Making a small farm at home is quite simple and can bedone so with things lying around the house and some waste material and wateron a rooftop, terrace or balcony.

Step 1You need a container to grow the plants.Earthen or cement pots are the best. Wooden crates lined on the inside with plastic, oldtires, egg trays,any plastic containers can also be used. You can even take an oldwooden bed and cover it with thick black plastic.

Step 2You need to put a substrate in the container.Rice hull, sawdust, volcanic scoria, sand, gravel, coconut fibre, perlite, peat, peanuthusks etc. You will also require a nutrient solution which can be obtained from the fermentation of organic waste material.

Step 3You need a suitable location.Basically, you need 1 to 10 square metres of free space, a minimum of six hours ofdaily sunlight and a clean water source. So the options could be your rooftop, balcony,backyard or any place else that meets the requirements.

Step 4You have to select what you have to grow.Tomato, beans, onion, garlic, gourds, potato, celery, pepper, chilly, carrot, lettuce,basil, cucumber, radish, cabbage, red beet, spinach, eggplant, medicinal plants...People have even grown mangoes and maize on a terrace garden.

Go organic: Be a chemical free farmer. Buy readymade, or compost your own organic kitchen, garden, left over food, household waste. You can create a vermi-compost bin even on a balcony in a flat. It really works.

Be Waterwise: Wastewater from kitchen and bathrooms can be treated, recycled andused.

Be chemical free: make use of bio-pesticides using neem, turmeric, lemons, tobacco,garlic, onions. Soap solution helps. Plant 'plant traps' like marigold or chrysanthemumsto mitigate bugs. Remember pests cannot be controlled, only managed.

Now you’re ready to be a City farmer!To know more about organic kitchen and terrace gardens or school or community gardens, write to [email protected]

Make Your Own Micro-garden at Home!


Documents

City Farming Mar04