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Urban Agriculture:A Transitional Mechanism for Reducing Environmental Degradation and Fossil Fu

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Chinese Journal of Population,Resources and Environment Vo1.8 No.1 March 2010 Urban Agriculture:A Transitional Mechanism for Reducing Environmental Degradation and Fossil Fuel over Dependence Henry Musoke Semakula Human Ecology Department,Vrije Universiteit Brussel,Laarbeeklaan 1 07,B一1 090,C98,Brussels,Belgium Abstract:With the increasing population in the urban cities of the world,the demand for food from distant areas has been on the rise but at the expense of scarce natural resources like oil,water (Ibid1. However,this pattern of agricultural production and its associated activities are at stake and questionable because and forest,etc.However,producing food locally in urban centers provides a sustainable mechanism of reducing the carbon,food or ecological footptints ofthese cities in particular and environmental degradation in genera1.It creates a circular metabolic system in the world is nearing the oil peak as presented by Hopkins (2008).In his transition handbook,Hopkins(2008)argues that oil is being depleted at high rate than its regeneration and in the nearby future,cheap oil wilt be no more.Lack of cheap oil means devastating global problems such as food crisis,fuel crisis,financial crisis and eventually societal which the natural inputs are efficiently harnessed rather than the linear metabolic system in which resources low ifn and wastes flow out.This article analyzes some urban agriculuralt local initiatives crisis.A part from oil dependency,agricultural activities lead to clearing of vegetation,emission of greenhouse gases because of fertilizer usage as well as motorised machines, all of which have partly contributed to the changing climate in urban centers of the worlds that promote a circular metabolic systems and proposes the procedure that can be adopted to pro— mote urban agriculture. Key words:urban cities,environmental degradation,local food production,oil peak,urban agriculture (Ibid). Thus,in order to address issues of the oil peak and environmental degradation from an agricultural point 1 Introduction The high demand for food in various urban centers of the world has led to the increasing use of advanced mecha. nized methods of food production,processing,packaging, marketing and transportation that are heavily dependent on the scarce oil deposits and other na ̄al resources.Tractors of view,there is great need for urban centers to make a transition to societies that are agriculturally less depen- dent on fossil fuels and more locally resilient.From the agricultural point of view,the concept of transition may refer to the rethinking as well as rebuilding our local agriculture and food production systems based on lo- cally available resources,skills and knowledge,which together maintain local sustainability while increasing local resilience.In that regard,urban agriculture is one that use a lot of oil are widely used for growing crops on a large scale and for harvesting crops in a shortest and quick— est time possible in order to meet the food demands(Brown, of the maj or practical entries which can lead to urban cities to transit towards a lower natural resource depen— 2008).Today,fertilizers like phosphates and nitrogen are produced in large quantities with the help of oil driven ma— chines with the view of increasing crop yields per unit area. Oil dependant irrigation pumps are also frequently being used to maintain a constant supply of food throughout the year.On the supply side,transportation of agricultural prod— dency future and to greater levels of urban resilience and sustainability.It promotes the use of locally available resources in urban areas to carry out fisheries,forestry activities,growing of crops,and rearing of livestock for the urban population.This article analyzes secondary data and shows how urban agriculture can reduce over dependency on fossil fuels and at the same time promote environmental conservation.The article also proposes a ucts to the urban centers is also oil dependant.For example, planes,motor vehicles,trains and ships which consume a lot of fuel are used to supply agricultural produces on a dai— ly basis in various places of the world where food is needed procedure that can be adopted to introduce urban agricul一 Received 15 December 2009;Accepted 25 December 2009 Corresponding author:Henry Musoke Semakula(msemakul@vub.ac be) 3 Chinese Journal of Population,Resources and Environment Vo1.8 No.1 March 2010 ture in cities gradable solid wastes generated in the cities.Biodegradable wastes that can be used in urban agriculture include animal 2 Urban agriculture as a sustainable land use activity Most of the urban population are consumers of food wastes,plant residues,industrial wastes,and residential wastes.This kind of local initiatives can reduce on the rate at which farmers depend on manufactured fertilizers like phosphates and nitrogen which are produced by oil depen— dent machines.Organic wastes can be converted into com— and other resources which they do not produce 1ocally but come from distant areas.This pattern of resource con. sumption has led to massive dependence of these cities on resources outside the cities causing vast environmental degradation in those far distant areas.Additionally,fuel dependant vessels are used to transport such resources into urban centers on a daily basis causing high amount of gasses to be emitted to the atmosphere,thus contributing to climate change problems.However,producing food lo— cally reduces degradation of resources in distant areas,the tonnage of food that must be transported daily to feed the same time,purchasing food urban population and at the post using a variety of methods depending on the volume of the waste.These include vermin—culture,bio—digesters, Indore methods,Bin method,Corral method,pile meth- ods,and Bio—dynamic methods(Altieri et a1.,1 999).These methods of compost making do not depend on oil use but on people’s own creativiy,committment and sacriifce.Thus, the use of organic wastes as manure in urban food growing are inherently healthy,based on ecosystem nutrient recy— cling and increased biodiversity as opposed agro-chemical inputs which are detrimental to the environment(Ibid).As regards non—biodegradable solid wastes,urban agriculure toffers many opportunities for dealing with them.Non-bio- degradable wastes like plastics and polythene bags are im— portant resources that can be used to grow crops on walls, locally decreases on the rate of fuel consumption(Howe and Wheeler,1999;Altieri et a1.,1999;Smit and Nasr, 1 992).This is an important element for transitioning our communities to a low oil dependency and environmental conservation. rtees,roofs,fences,verandas(Smit and NasL 1 992).Reus— ing non—bridgeable wastes helps to reduce on the amount of fuel that would have been used to collect or dispose them off.At the same time,it also improves environmental qual— ity. Many towns and cities of the world generate a lot of solid and liquid wastes and their collection。transporta— tion,disposal and treatment are highly dependent on fossil fuels.However,urban agriculture offers solutions to the Integrated Pest Management(IPM)strategies are also important aspect of rban agriculuture that can reduce envi— ronmental degradation.This practise also reduces the need and demand for chemical pesticides which are manufac・ urban wastes through recycling and reusing.By adopting urban agriculture,wastewater can be used for irigating farmlands instead of using flesh scarce water resources (Smit and Nasr,1992).For example,in Mexico Ci half of it is sewerage is used to irrigate over 1 00 000 hectares of livestock feeds while in Calcutta waste water is used tured with the help of oil dependent machines.For exam— pie,physical,cultural and biological pest control practices have been utilized by Cuban gardeners and this has reduced on the use of pesticides,which are detrimental to the envi- to irrigate vegetable fields(Ibid).Wastewater can also be used to raise fish and aquatic crops.For example,in Calcutta.one—third of the city’s fish is produced in sew- ronment and public health(Altieri et a1.,1 999).Among the Cuban farmers,the beneficial insects and entomopathogenic micro—organisms are raised locally using organic wastes age fed lagoon(Ibid).Therefore,substituting flesh water with wastewater for irrigating crops in urban areas is in- (Ibid). Utilization of idle,vacant,under-utilized,unutilized strumental in reducing the rate at which oil driven pumps are used to extract flesh water from distant areas or un. urban spaces for food production is another important strength of urban agriculture.Areas in urban areas which are not suitable for human settlement like steep slopes, derground reservoirs.At the same time,it reduces on the demand for the scarce water resources and impacts of over exploitation. wetlands,flood plains,beneath high tension lines can be From another perspective,the design and management of urban agriculture can rest well on organic practices or principles and this offers opportunities for utilizing biode一 put to full use under urban agriculurte practices(Smit and Nasr,1999).This has been the case with the Chinampas farming system in the wetlands of Mexico.which com- 4 Chinese Journal of Population,Resources and Environment Vo1.8 No.1 March 2010 bines aquatic,vegetables,trees,and flower production 3.2 Participatory formative research T}1e aim of this phase could focus on prioritising people’s with recreation and the floating fish farms in Hong Kong (Ibid).Further,idle public lands have great potential for food production and other activities that enhance the quality of the environment.Idle public lands may include roadsides,beside railroads,beneath high—tension lines, problems and needs,analyzing the opportunities and con— straints to the development of urban agriculture as well as identifying extra potential stakeholders who may enhance or retard the success of the program 1ike cultural 1eaders. within utility rights of way and in vacant lots of industrial estates.Community land like grounds of schools,hospi— tals,prisons,and churches offers the same importance. Household surfaces can be used for agriculture and these may include crop and animal production on rooftops,in window boxes,balconies and verandas.Crops like fruits, medicine herbs are being grown on the rooftops of San— tiago city,silk worms on balconies of old Delhi,pigeon in down town Cairo,orchards in houses of Bangkok(Ibid). This kind of efifcient utilization of urban space reduces on the rate trees and vegetation that are cleared from distant areas all in the name of producing food for the urban peo— pie.Growing food in urban centers has various advantages as regards addressing issues of climate change.The green landscape provided by urban agriculture is vital compo— nent in carbon sequestration,climate modiifcation and rain ofrmation. 3 Introducing urban agriculture in urban neigh- bourhood The question of how to introduce 1ocal food production in urban centers is obviously a challenging task and a very complex issue due to the various social,culutral,religious, economic and political issues which are involved.There— fore,a lot of creativity,innovativeness and planning need to be done as explained below. 3.1 Setting up an urban agriculture Think tan[( The Think tank could be composed of a collection of motivated and committed individuals within a commu. nity with a shared concern and vision for the betterment of their community in terms of food self-sufifciency and reliance as well as environmental qualiyt.Such individu. als could include existing city farmers,non—governmental organizations(NGOS),local city authorities,and re— searchers.etc.The members of thc Think tank should be committed to move the proj ect of local food production forward. politicians,policy makers,healthy workers and consumers, etc..The research results can portray a clear picture about the stakeholders to involve and their roles,the gender is. sues、the resources to use land tenure system of the areas, policy instruments,cultural norms and values,people’s per- ception about ruban agriculture,etc. 3.3 Creating awareness about urban agriculture Based on the research results,the Think tank could use a lot of creativity when carrying out awareness cam— paigns about urban agriculture.Awareness raising can be done by the help of social marketing tools(Weinreich, 1 999).In social marketing,the concept of social market— ing mix is widely used and refers to the decisions about the conception of a“Product,Price,Place’’of distribution and Promotion and these are offen called the”Four Ps”of marketing.The Think tank could design messages about their Product in this sense,urban agriculture which they want the people to adopt.In these messages,the people must be informed about the relationship between modern agriculture and environmental degradation,the oil peak as well as climate change scenario so that these urbanites, can feel that there is a serious problem which is affect— ing their lives and that the product(urban agriculutre)the Think tank is offering,is a good solution to the problems. In these messages,the attributes and benefits of urban agriculture could be identified to help position the prod— uct(growing food locally)in the minds of the urban resi— dents. In the designed messages,the Thikn tank could show the price or what the urban population has to give up in order to carry out urban agriculture.Price could be monetary, but mostly it could include time,efforts and supermarket purchasing habits,cultural and religious values which are negative to urban agriculture,emotional costs like feeling embraced when composting faecal matter and urine,recy— cling and reusing wastes,etc.However,the message should be designed to minimise the costs(price)of adopting urban agriculture so that they do not out--weigh the perceived ben-- 5 Chinese Journal of Population,Resources and Environment Vo1.8 No.1 March 2010 efits of growing food locally. Having designed the messages,the Think tank has to sidizing the price of locally produced compost.They can build small—scale biological systems for treating urban wastewater before being used by urban farmers,zone areas where agriculture can be carried out,guarantee security of land ownership by leasing out public land to farmers,approve architectural designs in urban centers look for the distribution channels or places where the public could be exposed to the urban agriculture messag— es like super markets,urban markets,hospitals,churches, schools,televisions,radios,and newspapers,etc.How— ever,the choice of message distribution channels could which have adequate space for carrying out small scale depend on the type of audience the Think tank would want to reach and the availability of the media channels most accessed by the targeted urban population.Having put that into consideration,the Think tank then could embark on promoting the product(urban agriculture). The focus should be put on motivating people to adopt urban agriculture while persuading those who have ad- opted to continue practicing.The methods of conveying the message could include adverts on televisions,radios and billboards,media advocacy like press event designed to encourage policy change in favour of urban agricul- ture,entertainment ranging from dramatic presentation to songs,personal selling like one to one counselling and peer education. 3.4 Developing a Joint urban agriculture action plan After some time of creating awareness about growing food locally,then the next step is to make a Joint Urban Agriculture Action Plan.During this stage,all key stake— holders who might have influence on the promotion of urban agriculutre should be invited in a workshop that is geared to come up with a Joint Urban Agriculture Action Plan that should be followed,fostered and implemented for the successful introduction of urban agriculture.The action plans should have the objectives,approaches,tools,inputs required,strategies for mobilizing resources,activities to be done within an agreed time framework and expected out put.In the Action Plan,the role of diffe:rent actors 1ike women,men,children,city authorities,and policymak— ers,tribal and religious leaders,healthy workers,should be described recognizing their diverse interests.In this discus- sion,the author presents a few important stakeholders and the roles they should play in order to make urban agricul— Bare a success. 3.4.1 Local city authorities The roles of local city authorities could arrange from creating small—scale composting facilities as well as sub- 6 farming. 3.4.2 Policy makers They should be able to integrate urban agriculture into various policies.For example,health policies should reflect urban agriculture as a way to enhance nutrition through own production of fruits,cereals,vegetables and livestock. Urban agriculutre should also be recognized in the health policies as one of the practices that enhance physical and mental health ofurban population htrough their contact wiht nature,physical activities while attending to crops.Policy makers should also integrate urban agriculture into the ex— isting urban environmental policies.This is because urban agriculture improves the microclimate and biodiversity in the cities,prevents erosion and flooding,utilizes urban wastes,reduces on the dust,and absorbs dangerous gases. Integrating urban agriculture into urban waste manage— ment policies is a very crucial role for policy makers.This is because urban agriculture can reduce problems faced by urban authorities as regards waste collection,transportation and disposal ofwastes.Therefore,urban waste management policies should encourage reuse and recycling of wastes for f0od production. 3-4.3 Non—governmental organizations They should focus on technical assistance and capaeity building of the local urban farmers.They should train urban farmer in various aspects of urban farming like low cost water harvesting technologies,local water conserving tech— nologies like mulching,urban waste compositing nad recy- cling,least—risk farming systems,safe handling of wastes, harvesting skills,food processing techniques and marketing ski11s. 3.5 Im plementation With the action plan in place,then the different stake- holders or actors as noted in the action plan could start to play their roles as regards introducing food production.For example,the NGOs could start to train farmers on vari- Chinese Journal of Population,Resources and Environment Vo1.8 No.1 March 2010 OUS aspects of urban agriculture,the city authorities could ture a success,a well thought procedure has to be followed as it is clearly illustrated in this article so that growing food provide land and other open spaces,and the private sector could provide low interest loans to the farmers. locally is adequately positioned in people’s minds.Public 3.6 Monitoring and evaluation At this stage.urban farmers need to forlTl an association which should have representatives from the different stake— participation and joint formulation of urban agriculture ac— tion plans create a sense of ownership,care,commitment, as well as equal sharing of the benefits from urban agricul— ture.All these aspects motivate the people to work towards holders or actors at all levels.This association or committee then carries out the monitoring and evaluation exercise.The monitoring and evaluation should be based on the objec. tives,indicators and targets which have been proposed dur- ing the formulation of the action plan. 4 COnclusiOns From the above discussion.it can be clearly noted that urban agriculture promotes the circular metabolic system in which the natura1 inputs are e币ciently harnessed as well as reducing,reusing,or recycling waste products rather than the linear metabolic system in which resources flow in and wastes lfow out(Doughty and Hammond.2004).This kind of circular metabolism,as it relates to urban agriculture。of- fers many benefits:diminish the ecological footprint Of f0Od and carbon by producing healthy,good tasting food without the use of agro—chemicals and with minimum transporta. tion requirements;reduce green house gas emissions and improve air quality;promote recycling and reusing wastes; promote personal well—being,cultural expression,social discourse and understanding of natural processes:contrib. ute to land use diversity and biodiversity that also act as a buffer for natural areas.Howeve ̄to make urban agricu1. less oi】and natural resource dependenc ̄increased local self-sufifciency,local resilience,self-reliance and sustain・ ability. References Altieri M A,Companioni N,Cafiizares K,et a1.,1 999.The greening ofthe‘Barrios’:urban agriculture for food security in Cuba.Ag- riculture and Human Values,16:13 1-140 Brown L R,2008.Plan B 3.O:Mobilizing to Save Civilization,1st Edition,Earth Policy Institute,USA,Pg 212 Doughty R C,Hammond P,2004.Sustainability and the built environ— ment at and beyond the city scale,Building and environment, 39(10):1223—1233 Hopkins R,2008.The Transition Handbook:From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience.Devon,UK:Green Books,240 Howe J,Wheeler 1999.Urban food growing:The Experience of Two UK Cities.Sustainable Development,(7):13—24 Smit J,Nasr J,1992.Urban agriculture for sustainable cities:using wastes and idle land and water bodies as resources.Environment and Urbanization,4(2):141-152 Weinreich N K,1 999.Hands—on Social Marketing:A Step_by—Step Guide.CA:Sage Publications,262 7 

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