WHAT is the biggest industry in most of the world鈥檚 cities? Surprisingly,
it is farming. On roadside verges and balconies, by airports and near
sewage-flooded creeks, city-dwellers are growing crops. And after years of
seeing city agriculture as an undesirable symptom of poverty, governments and
international development agencies have done a U-turn and now want to promote
it.
A study of urban farming in 100 cities in 30 countries, released in Istanbul
last week by the UN Development Programme, concludes that one in three of the
world鈥檚 urban residents grows food, either to fill the larder or to sell produce
for profit.
Urban agriculture provides an estimated 15 per cent of the world鈥檚 food, says
the report. Calcutta raises a quarter of its fish supply within its borders,
mostly in tanks fed with sewage. In Moscow, two-thirds of families now grow
food. Yet urban farming is an industry that 鈥渦ntil recently we never measured,
never helped and never even thought about鈥�, said the report鈥檚 author, Jac Smit,
an agricultural researcher with the UNDP.
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Governments and city authorities have traditionally tried to ban the
cultivation of public land. Roadside farmers were rounded up in Harare, the
capital of Zimbabwe, until a drought and near-famine in 1992 led to a lifting of
the ban. Aerial surveys show the area of the city under cultivation has since
doubled.
Cuba once banned street food markets, but now the government sells seeds and
tools to would-be urban farmers. 鈥淗avana has been transformed,鈥� said Smit.
The post-apartheid government in South Africa has asked its agricultural
research centres to investigate and promote urban farming. Even the US Congress
last March backed urban food production in its Community Food Security Act.
鈥淧lanners used to believe that cities were for industry and countryside was
for farming. But this is very outdated,鈥� said Smit. Urban farming is making a
nonsense of the boundaries between town and country, he said. In Bangkok, for
instance, 60 per cent of the land is devoted to farming.
In the past, development agencies have been concerned about the health risks
of using sewage to nourish urban crops. But the UNDP now accepts that these were
overestimated. 鈥淚t is recycling vital resources, producing high crop yields and
tackling a major environmental problem,鈥� said Anders Wijkman, who headed the
UNDP delegation in Istanbul.
鈥淚n the past, health laws were unnecessarily restrictive,鈥� said Smit. The
remaining concern is the toxicity of heavy metals such as lead, in sewage and
from air pollution. 鈥淟eaf crops such as spinach should not be grown near roads,鈥�
he said.
鈥淔ood security for the poor is also a health problem,鈥� said Wijkman. 鈥淲e have
to have a balance. Urban farms are a life-saver for millions of urban dwellers
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