46
B. Anindya and K. N. Sekhar
There has been an inherent assumption that cities where tertiary activities are
predominant will not produce food for themselves but will buy food. Gradually,
with the increasing number of mouths to feed production of food within urban area
became a necessity and urban agriculture was the only viable way out. In 1975, ‘Slow
Street Movement’ was initiated in Berkeley with an aim to ensure sustainability
through usage of non-conventional energy, alternative transportation modes along
with planting and harvesting fruit trees along the streets. Long back in the 1980s and
1990s US census documented that urban metropolitan areas produced 30 and 40% of
the total agriculture produce respectively, going by the dollar value [49]. There has
been meteoric rise of urban agriculture in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania with the number
of families engaged in farming increasing from 18% in 1967 to 67% in 2000 [29].
Similar, has been the case for Moscow—the families involved in food production rose
from 20% in 1970 to 65% in 1991 [49]. Urban agriculture has become an acceptable
practice with a share of 15–20% of the world’s food supply [35] and during this trying
period it is bound to get bigger. Much before, in 2013 42 million households were
actively involved with urban agriculture through individual or community efforts
[1]. From the estimates of Thomas [53], encouraging figures were seen in smaller
Siberian and Asian cities where over 80% of the families were engaged in urban
agricultural practices.
Every time, during severe crises like war, civil disobedience and recession the
importance of growing food in and around the cities has been felt by the community.
One of the first such initiative was Schrebergaerten, in Germany after World War
I, when city people had the option to either go hungry or to at least grow their
own food partially. In a similar situation during the Second World War, the Dig for
Victory campaign in Britain was successful to a certain extent in bringing a portion of
urban land into cultivation [25]. For pursuing agricultural activities there are vacant
open spaces, derelict land within the cities. Like in Essen, Germany abandoned coalmining areas were earmarked for urban agriculture projects [14]. In Britain, city farm
projects were set up in more than twenty cities on deserted lands [25]. The country
with the highest population in the world, i.e. China has several of its densely populated
cities including Beijing practising highly intensive urban cropping system. It was also
planned that to tackle the issue of growing unemployment in the cities the excess
labour can be utilised to adopt new survival strategies like urban agriculture [5].
This has already been done in American cities like Detroit and New York where vast
amount of vacant land has been put to use for growing food with active involvement
of unemployed workers [14]. The cities of Africa like Harare, Zimbabwe or Cairo in
Egypt which are affected by frequent droughts have arranged for their own back-up
plans like open-space cultivation, utilising the city fringe and keeping of poultries
too [17]. In India, though there have been initiatives to create smart and sustainable
cities, little efforts have been taken. From Table 2.2 it is clear that the share of
urban population involved in the selected developing countries is quite promising,
sole exception being Indonesia where the urban participation is abysmally low. But
the disappointing indicator is the share of total income where this sector performs
poorly, the case is more severe in Asian and Latin American countries. Besides,
under the National Food Security Programmes several success stories have emerged
B. Anindya and K. N. Sekhar
There has been an inherent assumption that cities where tertiary activities are
predominant will not produce food for themselves but will buy food. Gradually,
with the increasing number of mouths to feed production of food within urban area
became a necessity and urban agriculture was the only viable way out. In 1975, ‘Slow
Street Movement’ was initiated in Berkeley with an aim to ensure sustainability
through usage of non-conventional energy, alternative transportation modes along
with planting and harvesting fruit trees along the streets. Long back in the 1980s and
1990s US census documented that urban metropolitan areas produced 30 and 40% of
the total agriculture produce respectively, going by the dollar value [49]. There has
been meteoric rise of urban agriculture in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania with the number
of families engaged in farming increasing from 18% in 1967 to 67% in 2000 [29].
Similar, has been the case for Moscow—the families involved in food production rose
from 20% in 1970 to 65% in 1991 [49]. Urban agriculture has become an acceptable
practice with a share of 15–20% of the world’s food supply [35] and during this trying
period it is bound to get bigger. Much before, in 2013 42 million households were
actively involved with urban agriculture through individual or community efforts
[1]. From the estimates of Thomas [53], encouraging figures were seen in smaller
Siberian and Asian cities where over 80% of the families were engaged in urban
agricultural practices.
Every time, during severe crises like war, civil disobedience and recession the
importance of growing food in and around the cities has been felt by the community.
One of the first such initiative was Schrebergaerten, in Germany after World War
I, when city people had the option to either go hungry or to at least grow their
own food partially. In a similar situation during the Second World War, the Dig for
Victory campaign in Britain was successful to a certain extent in bringing a portion of
urban land into cultivation [25]. For pursuing agricultural activities there are vacant
open spaces, derelict land within the cities. Like in Essen, Germany abandoned coalmining areas were earmarked for urban agriculture projects [14]. In Britain, city farm
projects were set up in more than twenty cities on deserted lands [25]. The country
with the highest population in the world, i.e. China has several of its densely populated
cities including Beijing practising highly intensive urban cropping system. It was also
planned that to tackle the issue of growing unemployment in the cities the excess
labour can be utilised to adopt new survival strategies like urban agriculture [5].
This has already been done in American cities like Detroit and New York where vast
amount of vacant land has been put to use for growing food with active involvement
of unemployed workers [14]. The cities of Africa like Harare, Zimbabwe or Cairo in
Egypt which are affected by frequent droughts have arranged for their own back-up
plans like open-space cultivation, utilising the city fringe and keeping of poultries
too [17]. In India, though there have been initiatives to create smart and sustainable
cities, little efforts have been taken. From Table 2.2 it is clear that the share of
urban population involved in the selected developing countries is quite promising,
sole exception being Indonesia where the urban participation is abysmally low. But
the disappointing indicator is the share of total income where this sector performs
poorly, the case is more severe in Asian and Latin American countries. Besides,
under the National Food Security Programmes several success stories have emerged