Urban agriculture: food basket of the city

by Dr Jacques van Zyl, jacquesvz@elsenburg.com

TThe conference titled “Urban agricultural heritage and the shaping of future cities” took place this year in Hanover, Germany.

The conference reiterated that urbanisation plays a pivotal role in the rural–urban resource allocation of cities, specifically in developing countries. With the current increasing rate of urban consumption and growth, the sustainable management of water and food is problematic due to challenges in waste management and sanitation. Cities are becoming nutrient sinks and the development of closed-loop processes of production is a necessity to enhance the recovery of resources for sustainable urban and rural development. The demand for nutrients by urban and peri-urban agriculture could be satisfied to a significant level if collected food waste and faecal sludge can be treated for re-use in agriculture. Planning for closed-loop systems is essential to maintain cities because everexpanding cities will exhaust resources and will cause pollution at an increasing rate.

Three main policy perspectives on urban agriculture are as follows:

• The economic perspective is related to market-orientated urban agriculture, which typically involves small-scale family-based enterprises, and also larger entrepreneurial farms run by producer associations or private investors. Some of these enterprises are not only involved in food production, but also non-food products such as medicinal herbs, ornamental plants and flowers. A number of these urban farms are associated with smallscale or larger enterprises that are involved in processing, marketing and the delivery of inputs, such as seed, agrochemicals and compost. The bigger urban farms have a higher potential for possible water and soil contamination through the intensive use of agrochemicals. They also pose a health risk due to the possible use of contaminated water and the risk of animal–human disease transfers.

• The social perspective is primarily, but not exclusively, related to subsistence-based urban agriculture that is an integral part of the livelihood of lower income households. The focus here is on the production of food and medicinal plants for household use and the surplus is sold to generate cash. Typically, these producers seek multiple additional income sources to fulfil their survival needs. Home gardening, community gardening, micro-scale open-field farming with minimal input, and institutional gardens are examples of this sector. Enhanced food security, poverty alleviation, social inclusion, and community development are positive results of these gardens, but unfortunately these systems show little profitability.

• The ecological perspective of urban agriculture is usually overlooked, but it can play a positive part in environmental management. Along with food production and income generation it can have a major role in nutrient recycling by decentralised composting and reuse of wastewater and