What is the Urban Farming, Agriculture & Gardening? We are bringing you everything you need to know about starting Urban Farming in or around cities. You can start urban farming almost anywhere. It could even be in your own apartment. If you want to learn more about it, keep reading this text.
What is the Urban Farming, Agriculture & Gardening?
A Few words about Urban Farming
Urban farming, agriculture, or gardening is the cultivation of plants and animals in and around cities. The most noticeable feature of urban agriculture that distinguishes it from rural agriculture is that it is integrated into the urban economic and ecological system: urban agriculture is embedded in – and interacts with – the urban ecosystem.
Do I Require a Large Amount of Space?
No, you don’t require that much room (if you want to work really small). Only your apartment or back garden will suffice. There are also city farms, which can be classified as agricultural plots in urban areas and employ city dwellers to work with animals and plants for food.
Farms are typically community gardens that aim to improve community relationships while also educating people living in cities about agriculture, farming, and gardening. Urban farms are an important source of food in many cities worldwide. Urban farms come in a variety of sizes, from small farms that can be grown in your garden to large farms that require a lot of space. Farmers produce a significant amount of food for city dwellers. According to global estimates (1993 data), urban areas produce 15-20% of the world’s food.
Urban agriculture largely complements rural agriculture and boosts the effectiveness of the country’s food system by supplying goods that rural agriculture finds difficult to produce (such as perishable goods and goods that must be delivered quickly after harvest), which can replace imported food and free up rural lands for the production of goods for export.
Urban Farming:
Being able to operate urban farming or gardening without being a major enterprise is fantastic. You can do it as a hobby or as a sole source of income for your family and yourself so that you can eat well. Or, you may donate it to shelters, sell it to local food markets, or do a plethora of other things.
As people gain more knowledge about food, they become more interested in where and how it was produced, whether it was organic, how it was handled after harvest, and how it was transported and stored from one location to another. The best option for healthy food can sometimes be urban farms.
Most people imagine urban farms to be located within cities, but that need not be the case. It might be near the borders of cities. There is no one way to describe what or where they must be. They can be anywhere you have open space inside or close to the city, such as your backyard, a rooftop, or another location. Like typical rural farms, every urban agricultural farm is unique.
Advantages of Urban Agriculture:
Growing your own food reduces the amount of money your household spends on food; impoverished individuals in developing nations typically spend between 50 and 70 percent of their income on food. Saving money can be achieved by both growing rather expensive veggies and exchanging produce. Sales of goods, whether raw or processed, generate revenue.
In addition to providing urban farmers with financial advantages, urban agriculture promotes the growth of related micro businesses that deal with the manufacturing of agricultural inputs as well as the processing, packing, and marketing of finished goods. These businesses’ operations or services may be wholly or partially related to urban agriculture. Independent families and groups may also offer additional services (e.g., animal health services, bookkeeping, and transportation).
Food products may be transformed by roasting poultry, eggs, or plants, or by creating milk yoghurt. Depending on the size of the unit, it may be sold at the household level, at the farm door, at a neighbourhood grocery shop or market, or even in greater quantities for export.
The connections between various business kinds in clusters or chains require special consideration. Municipalities and sectoral groups can be extremely helpful in promoting the growth of micro-businesses involved in urban agriculture.
Urban gardening can be practised in more advanced cities for the physical and/or psychological relaxation it offers, rather than for the food it really produces. Additionally, urban and suburban farms can be crucial in supplying residents with recreational possibilities (recreational routes, purchasing food from the farm, visiting facilities), as well as educational purposes (bringing young people into contact with animals, teaching about ecology, etc.).
Urban Agriculture:
Growing fresh food close to consumers reduces energy consumption in transport by cooling, processing, and packaging, while productive reuse of urban organic waste and wastewater (and the nutrients they contain) reduces landfill methane emissions. Urban agriculture and urban forestry also reduce runoff, keep flood plains free of construction, reduce urban temperature, and capture dust and CO2.
It is imperative to increase urban farmers’ access to credit and financing, particularly for the poor farmers who lack the requisite resources. Municipalities can encourage existing credit institutions to create special credit schemes for urban producers or to let urban producers take part in current loan schemes for the informal sector by, for example, setting up a guarantee fund.
In the form of a “Mobile Agro-Industry,” the PROVE initiative at Brasilia FD (Brazil) offered a non-financial assurance to the city’s producer organisations (truck-mounted metal frames). These frames can be used as security for a business loan because they are robust and portable.
Another crucial element in encouraging urban agriculture activities is the inclusion of urban agriculture in municipal budgets. The City Council gives funds to support its urban agriculture strategy and programme in many communities (infrastructure development, training, marketing support, start-up kits, and so on). The establishment of a sustainable and resilient city that is socially inclusive, food safe, productive, and eco-friendly is directly correlated with excellent urban agriculture.
Can I Make Money by Farming in my City?
The British Food Journal’s study of 370 urban farmers in the United States revealed that the average urban farm generates sales of slightly under $54,000 annually. Unfortunately, it is not that much for some. However, research has shown that there are significant disparities in urban farming.
For instance, a rooftop farm will only make a very modest profit, whereas hydroponic operations will make a very large profit. Don’t forget that many urban farmers merely do this as a hobby or a side gig, which means they can make a respectable side income while still providing healthy food for themselves and their families.
