50
B. Anindya and K. N. Sekhar
2.8 Conclusion
The conventional idea that agriculture is a negligible entity in urban setup is no
more a reality. A formidable number of urban households are involved in this genre,
mostly in Africa, but the role is limited when income generation is noted. To attract
more people across economic background towards making cities self-reliant on food
supply the issue of food security ensuring dietary diversity and calorie availability
needs to be highlighted. Once urban agriculture becomes economically viable and
profitable the idea for urban food justice shall become a rage in near future.
Getting Accustomed to the ‘New Normal’
In a strongly connected and integrated world, the impact of COVID-19 would be
way beyond absolute number of deaths reported; there would be food crunch, global
economic crisis even recessions for which governments have to prepare contingency
plans.
Today, when the global pandemic of COVID-19 has created huge stress on urban
areas; with restrictions on movements, high fear of contamination—import of food
articles has been a hassle, urban agriculture emerges as a saviour. Urban food production is not only a matter of scientific curiosity but now has become an urban policy
issue and development tool. The food systems integrate various stages of food production, i.e. form ‘farm to fork’ encompassing infrastructure, inputs, institutions and
manpower [19] and as this intricate network grows longer the chances of complication increases. FAO Report [22] indicated that due to lengthy large-scale lockdowns
farmers were barred from accessing markets and their fresh produce was wasted or
sold at a very cheap rate while on the other hand the collection centres in the urban
areas faced severe scarcity and there was a steep rise in price. To deal with this, shortening of chain along with facilitation of e-commerce platform has been suggested.
It pointed out that like the big brands, the small local producers and suppliers can go
for app usage for door-step deliveries covering limited radius. Collection of real-time
data taking the aid of information and communication technologies (ICTs), Internet of
Things (IoT) platforms might help to improve the connection between local suppliers
and buyers when physical contact is an issue. Creating database and dashboard maps
with urban agriculture-related production will help in planning urban farm produce
movement and would flourish further if partnerships among urban farmers and resultant community-networking is taken seriously. Wesana et al. [61] advocated for value
stream mapping for identifying gaps in the supply chain and judicious management
of those.
Future Scope
Putting forward specific recommendations for improving urban sustainability and
food security is a tough ask because urban areas are unique in their own ways and a
blanket scheme is not going to serve the purpose; each case might require different
approaches. However, it can be stated very clearly that the importance of urban agriculture has to be highlighted among the urban planners and policymakers so that
B. Anindya and K. N. Sekhar
2.8 Conclusion
The conventional idea that agriculture is a negligible entity in urban setup is no
more a reality. A formidable number of urban households are involved in this genre,
mostly in Africa, but the role is limited when income generation is noted. To attract
more people across economic background towards making cities self-reliant on food
supply the issue of food security ensuring dietary diversity and calorie availability
needs to be highlighted. Once urban agriculture becomes economically viable and
profitable the idea for urban food justice shall become a rage in near future.
Getting Accustomed to the ‘New Normal’
In a strongly connected and integrated world, the impact of COVID-19 would be
way beyond absolute number of deaths reported; there would be food crunch, global
economic crisis even recessions for which governments have to prepare contingency
plans.
Today, when the global pandemic of COVID-19 has created huge stress on urban
areas; with restrictions on movements, high fear of contamination—import of food
articles has been a hassle, urban agriculture emerges as a saviour. Urban food production is not only a matter of scientific curiosity but now has become an urban policy
issue and development tool. The food systems integrate various stages of food production, i.e. form ‘farm to fork’ encompassing infrastructure, inputs, institutions and
manpower [19] and as this intricate network grows longer the chances of complication increases. FAO Report [22] indicated that due to lengthy large-scale lockdowns
farmers were barred from accessing markets and their fresh produce was wasted or
sold at a very cheap rate while on the other hand the collection centres in the urban
areas faced severe scarcity and there was a steep rise in price. To deal with this, shortening of chain along with facilitation of e-commerce platform has been suggested.
It pointed out that like the big brands, the small local producers and suppliers can go
for app usage for door-step deliveries covering limited radius. Collection of real-time
data taking the aid of information and communication technologies (ICTs), Internet of
Things (IoT) platforms might help to improve the connection between local suppliers
and buyers when physical contact is an issue. Creating database and dashboard maps
with urban agriculture-related production will help in planning urban farm produce
movement and would flourish further if partnerships among urban farmers and resultant community-networking is taken seriously. Wesana et al. [61] advocated for value
stream mapping for identifying gaps in the supply chain and judicious management
of those.
Future Scope
Putting forward specific recommendations for improving urban sustainability and
food security is a tough ask because urban areas are unique in their own ways and a
blanket scheme is not going to serve the purpose; each case might require different
approaches. However, it can be stated very clearly that the importance of urban agriculture has to be highlighted among the urban planners and policymakers so that