Introduction:
Food and nutrition security issues have wide reaching implications for people and their environments,
particularly in developing countries. Among the existing strategies to address these issues, promotion of urban farming can be an important consideration. Urban farming has been widely looked as a potential solution to the food-crisis faced by the increasing population in the cities. As we are aware that urban poverty is on rise and hence a concern for the development planning. It is believed that the urban farming can provide the urban poor with food, nutrition and a potential source of some income for development. The practice of urban farming can help in improving the urban environment and
reducing pressure on agricultural land. Urban farming
is also associated with some potential disadvantages, including the associated health risks and implications for the environment. The usage of urban waste-water which may contaminate the farm produce and intensive irrigation might lead to the spread of malaria and water borne diseases, as well as threatening already limited water supplies. Soil erosion and the intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides might also present health risks to urban populations and damage the environment. Given the current policy drive to promote urban farming, there is aneed to understand its effects on urban populations and their environments.
The experience of growing food through urban farming can be correlated with its consumption. People with more experience in growing food through urban farming are more likely to eat more healthy food. Urban farming can build safe, healthy and green environments in neighborhoods, schools and abandoned areas.
The emergence of urban farming:
The twenty-first century has often been described as ‘the first urban century’. Unprecedented migration of a large number of populations from rural areas to cities has led to the rapid growth of the cities. Furthermore, the growing population over the next few decades will be absorbed by the cities in low and middle-income countries, thus increasing the pressure on urban resources that are often already exhausted. Among the most pressing needs of any urban agglomeration is the question of urban food security and ensuring the right to food. Urban populations depend on the reliable and stable availability of food products, as well as affordable and convenient access to them. High levels of urban income poverty paired with rising food prices, however, often make the formal urban food supply system unaffordable and inaccessible to the urban poor. An informal food supply system, consisting of street vendors, informal markets, home-based enterprises as well as urban farming, exists alongside formal interventions. These informal networks predominantly satisfy the urban poor’s demand for easily accessible – though not often cheaper – foodstuffs. Urban farming has been recognized as one of the most beneficial and promising means of informal food production. Although urban farming has been an integral part of urban livelihood throughout human history, the concept has become more prominent in 1980s. Urban farming is portrayed as an important intervention to improve urban food security.
Urban farming:
Urban farming is nothing but a system of food production located within the city or in the peri-urban areas of the cities that helps in growing and distribution of a diversity of food and non-food products, through recycling of material resources, products and services found in and around the urban area, and in turn supplying human and material resources, products and services largely to that urban area. Urban farming involves food production in community gardens, backyard gardens, vacant sites, green houses, compound walls, fences, rooftops, balconies, windowsills, tank bunds, etc. This also includes other important systems such as aquaculture, hydroponics and shade nets.
Important dimensions of urban farming:
Urban farming is thought to increase food security through two main pathways: improved access to food and increased income. Home-grown foodstuffs increase the total amount of food available to a household and thus can prevent hunger and malnutrition. At the same time the availability of fresh, home grown food products, in particular fruits and vegetables, advances the nutritional status of household members and thereby improves health. Direct access to food often allows particularly poor households to consume a more diverse diet than they would otherwise be able to afford. Especially, animal husbandry is believed to provide an important source of animal protein, which is commonly limited in poor households’ diets due to income constraints. Dietary diversity and kilocalorie
consumption are the two main aspects which influence the outcome of improved nutrition.
Urban farming is assumed to create an ‘opportunity cost’ – domestic producers can either save income, via the consumption of home-produced foodstuffs that are cheaper to produce than to buy from the market, and/or increase income by selling or trading their products. Addressing urban food insecurity, therefore requires a balancing act between urban farming (the opportunity cost of producing your own food) and more efficient urban food markets thus making the food more cheaper.
The latter may be a result of urban or peri-urban farmers’ contributions to the markets. Higher cash income at the household level is then positively linked to food security as households are believed to have greater access to food products. This relationship, however, to large extent, depends on the calorie elasticity of income that is, the extent to which a change in income leads to a meaningful change in calorie intake. Households with low-income elasticity, for example, might not experience improved levels of nutrition linked to an increase in income. Given the low input costs of urban farming it is believed to have great potential in addressing urban poverty and food insecurity. It is also important to note that the potential for urban farming to improve food security depends on the inefficiency within the current system to allow scope for improvements. It will not in all cases be more economically efficient for households to grow their own food as opposed to engaging in other
productive activities or buying food from the market.
Health benefits of urban farming:
The value of health benefits associated with urban farming is many times not acknowledged. Urban farming leads to lots of physical exercise and indirectly the exercise related health benefits. It ensures enhanced consumption of more fresh fruits and vegetables produced by urban farming because of easy access. There will be improved dietary knowledge, practice and habits among the people involved in urban food production. It can also promote cooking of healthy foods at homes. The most important aspect of urban farming can be saving in money spent on buying fruits and vegetables apart from other food products produced in urban farming. Urban farming contributes to community food security. Apart from food and nutrition security it can contribute for the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social health of the individuals and the communities involved in farming apart from its contribution to the family income realized through the sale of the produce. Some of the studies have shown that gardening can reduce the risks of obesity, coronary heart diseases, glycemic control, diabetes and occupational injuries. Gardening can expand little or intensive amounts of energy. Even moderate forms of garden exercise increase muscle strength and endurance in activity reduced persons, including pregnant women, cancer survivors, and those generally sedentary. Gardening
can be a preferred form of exercise across age, gender, and ethnicity. Working in the urban farming activities, especially gardening can bring benefits of enhanced mental health, mental outlook and personal wellness of individuals. Cultivation of variety of crops in the gardens can trigger illness prevention and healing responses. The field of horticulture therapy can promote plant human relationships to induce relaxation and to reduce stress, fear, anger, blood pressure and muscle tension. Another important aspect of urban farming in schools can bring health effects on students along with the enhanced skills of food production. These gardens can be the nontraditional learning laboratories for the students who become familiar with the art of growing various crops, especially fruits and vegetables which are critical to reducing obesity and chronic diseases. Such of the school garden programs can develop passion among the students for gardening and can teach the students the hands on skills and lifetime hobby that provides exercise, mental stimulation and social interactions. The
urban community gardens can help overcome social, health and environmental justice challenges. It can help in the safe and pleasant neighborhoods promotion through the active lifestyles and outdoor exercises that counteract the physical passively associated with obesity epidemic.
Critics of urban farming:
Apart from the perceived absence of empirical evidence on urban farming, researchers have also pointed to urban health risks associated with urban farming and the implications of these for the environment. The usage of waste water, for example, is feared to contaminate produced food and intensive irrigation might lead to the spread of malaria and water borne diseases, as well as lowering the water table. Soil erosion and the intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides might also present health risks to urban populations, as well as cause environmental harm. Furthermore, both largeand small-scale food productions are associated with deforestation, draining of water reservoirs, etc. Urban farming often excludes the most vulnerable groups in society through a lack of legal tenure, capital and policy support. Land use planning in urban areas often implies that once land that has been used for urban agriculture rises in value, the land is removed from agricultural use. Only if and when city administrations set aside dedicated pieces of land for urban agriculture with low opportunity costs to those intending to use it, will potential users be able to use it for improved access to food or in order to generate income
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