Last week I had an opportunity to participate and present a
paper at the Regional Workshop on, ‘Strengthening Urban and Periurban Agriculture
(UPA) towards Resilient Food Systems in Asia’ in Bangkok, Thailand. This
workshop was jointly organized by FAO Regional Office for Asia and Pacific and
PN Agricultural Science Foundation, Bangalore. Ten countries in the region
participated in the workshop sharing their experiences and approach towards UPA.
Urbanization is happening at a much faster rate than
expected and is of a great concern world over. The global population reached
the seven billion mark in 2011. After the six billion mark it just took 12
years to reach seven billion. The shortest time ever to add one extra billion
signals a major shift in both the pace and scale of global demographics. During
early 1800 about three per cent of the world’s population lived in cities.
However, in 2011 there were 480 cities with populations exceeding one million
as compared to just 80 in 1950. More than three billion people currently reside
in urban areas and this figure is expected to rise to five billion by 2050.
Global population growth is overwhelmingly concentrated in marginal urban and
surrounding periphery of cities, especially in slums. This geographical
shift has tremendous implications for the current and future dynamics of human
development.
With more than half the world’s population now living
in urban areas, there is a growing interest in urbanization processes and the
role of cities in sustainable development. The current trends of urbanization
are reflections of the transformations that are being seen in the national
economies where farming community are moving away from agriculture to industry
and service sectors.
It is expected that by 2020
the developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America will be home to
some 75% of all urban dwellers which would comprise of 85% of the poor in Latin
America, and about 40-45% of the poor in Africa and Asia will be concentrated
in towns and cities. Most cities in developing countries have great
difficulties to cope with the urban population expansion which is often
accompanied by poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition and unemployment. Such rapid
urbanization and the harsh reality of urban poverty require sound strategies to
ensure adequate food supply and distribution systems to address escalating
levels of urban food insecurity and food safety. Urban and Periurban agriculture (UPA)
provides a complementary strategy to reduce urban poverty, food insecurity and
enhance urban environmental management if it is planned and designed
appropriately.
Urban and Periurban agriculture (UPA)
Urban and Periurban agriculture is
much more than growing crops and raising animals within and around cities
complementing rural agricultural systems in the production and supply of local
food. In addition to food production, UPA provides a series of environmental
services like clean air, carbon sequestration, reduction of green house gases,
enhances biodiversity and many more. Also UPA supports related economic activities
such as the production and delivery of inputs, processing and marketing of
products and serves as an important ecological activity for income generation
to supplement the revenues of urban and periurban families and therefore
constitutes an integral component of urban socio‐economic paradigm. One of the approaches
for UPA is utilization of the roof top space for gardening. Some studies
estimate the roof tops comprise of about 30 – 40% % of the urban area which
remains unutilized to a large extent. Roof tops provide a great scope in
cultivating crops whereby the domestic biodegradable wastes and water can be
recycled. The wastes can be transformed into resources (i.e compost) which can
not only capture carbon but also provide manure for the plants to keep the city
green and clean.
Roof top garden in Bangkok
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| Laksi District Office |
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| Mr. Narong Jungchamfa, Director of Laksi District Office |
During the workshop we had an opportunity to visit Laksi
district which is about one hour drive from Bangkok to view the roof top garden
project of the district administration. It was a beautiful model for the city
dwellers to emulate. The technology used is very simple and appropriate to the
city context. On the top of the seventh
floor of the Laksi district office complex the open area of about 4,000 square
metres was used for developing roof top garden. The initial investment to
establish this garden was a mere 1000 Bhat (about 35 USD) says the Director of
the Laksi District Office Mr. Narong Jungchamfa who takes special interest and
pride in promoting the roof-top garden project. Under his leadership this
project has won many accolades from various international and national
organizations. About 100 different species of vegetables
are cultivated in the open space which otherwise was not utilized.
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| Rooftop Garden |
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| Ms. Mam (left) with Ms. Wilailak sharing her experiences |
The most interesting aspect was that the wastes were used
as resources for the preparations of a variety of formulations adopting organic
farming practices. Shrimp wastes, soya meal, vinegar, yeast, coir pith and many
other available materials are fermented and used for making growth promoters
and bio-pesticides. The garden is maintained by Ms. Mam from the Laksi district
office who shares her experience with exuberance and enthusiasm with the
visitors. All the garden operations from sowing the seeds in the nursery,
transplanting, nurturing the plants, plant protection to marketing are being
handled by Ms. Mam. She cultivates a variety of leafy vegetables and fruits on
the roof top.
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| Rooftop garden |
Every house
generates lot of biodegradable wastes which to a large extent are disposed off
adding to the existing garbage problem. If every household attempts to utilize
the biodegradable wastes alone, the problem of waste management can be solved
to a large extent. Roof tops may not be accessible for every city dweller; instead
large pots can be utilized for cultivating vegetables on the balcony. Wherever
rooftops are available don’t let the open space go waste use them for growing
plants which in a modest way can contribute towards reducing the impacts of
climate change.