Blog B2BIO - Benefits of Urban Agriculture

Around 15 percent of the world's food is now grown in urban areas. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), urban farms already supply food to about 700 million residents of cities, representing about a quarter of the world’s urban population. By 2030, 60 percent of people in developing countries will likely live in cities.

The efforts of hundreds of urban farms and gardens to grow organic produce, cultivate food justice and equity in their communities, and revitalize urban land. Urban agriculture not only contributes to food security, but also to environmental stewardship and a cultural reconnection with the land through education.

Urban agriculture uses of resources in cities that would otherwise go to waste.  Gardens can be built in an empty lots, on top of buildings, on steep slopes and river banks, all examples of spaces that would otherwise be unproductive.  These gardens can use waste water to water their crops, therefore doing away with the issue of waste water treatment. The urban farm could use compost from food scraps in kitchens all over the city, these food scraps might otherwise be thrown away, wasting valuable nutrients.  City farms use resources that would have been wasted to produce new resources for the community. They produce food, jobs, and a variety of less quantifiable benefits, many of which are listed below.

Social benefits of urban agriculture 

- Helps bring families and communities together by working toward a common goal that will be beneficial for all

- Gives direct links to food production

- Creates better living environment by greening up the city and making it more productive

- Makes people stronger by putting their food security into their own hands, making them more  independent and empowered

- Teaches people life skills such as how to be more self sufficient

- Creates jobs, income, and food

- Helps combat hunger

- Educate people, who have been increasingly removed from food production, to participate in, and respect, its generation (Hamm 1999)

Environmentally benefits of urban agriculture 

- Greens up the city

- Can help to clean air and rain water

- Helps to stop erosion and topsoil removal

- increases the amount of food grown and bought locally, decreasing carbon footprint

Facilitates  reuse of wastes for food production

- Has direct impacts on urban ecology

- Economical benefits of urban agriculture 

- Creates jobs and income from otherwise completely unproductive space

- Can be beneficial to people of any income

- Creates a better local economy that does not rely on food from far away

Why we should use the Urban Agriculture?

Urban farming has a long tradition in both Asia and Europe. In the past, it was practiced mainly because it bought the product close to the consumer at a time when transport was slow and communication poor. City farming was then for survival; for many of today's poor urban dwellers, it is still a route to survival - but, in addition, it also provides freshness, dietary variety and aesthetic enjoyment.

City farming: key facts

- There are some 200 million urban farmers in the world, supplying food to 700 million people.

- Urban farming provides for 30% of vegetable consumption in Kathmandu, 50% in Karachi and 85% in Shanghai.

- Some 50% of Asian urban households farm.

- Small livestock are an important part of city farming. For example, livestock are raised by 17% of urban households in Kenya.

- The average Latin American urban family spends 1 to 1.5 working days a week on its urban garden and saves 10%-30% on its food bill.

- Commodities such as fruit, vegetables, pork and poultry provide some 10%-40% of the nutritional needs of urban families in developing countries.

Sources: FAO and Sidewalksprouts