URBAN FARMING-A UTOPIAN DREAM?

Urban gardening or food crop cultivation was touted as a solution to make the community self-sufficient with regard to some of their food needs. The energy crisis, economic crisis and the latest emission crisis probably energized the local food movement under the presumption that such a strategy would "solve" all the problems. Beyond serving as a curiosity, the movement cannot be expected to be of any relevance to day. Cultivating vacant lands nearby or setting up a terrace garden for vegetables can be a hobby for many urban dwellers but the scale of operation or the intensity of involvement cannot match the volume requirements of any viable community. The problems of logistics clearly rule out any dramatic development in the foreseeable future.

"Clearly the biggest challenges to the growing interest in urban agriculture are meeting the demand for land to farm, gaining knowledge about how to do it and finding avenues for selling backyard produce. City and regional leaders, businesses, educators and nonprofit groups are all pitching in to help sate that demand. Some of the need is being met by a Web site called Urban Garden Share. Amy Pennington, the site's founder, was out drinking cocktails with some budding gardeners -- but who also were apartment dwellers and therefore lacked their own row to hoe. They were considering "rogue gardening" on the sly to meet their gardening needs. An idea struck Pennington: "How fun would it be to do on line dating for gardens?" So in March 2009, she created Urban Garden Share. The free service matches people with unused land available for urban farming with gardeners looking for a place to grow food. Now there are close to 400 active listings, which are identified by neighborhood".

How long such a fancy will last remains to be seen. The ready to use growing kits, minimum physical effort needed to set up such gardens and the cooperative attitude of the members of the communities there make the job much easier to accomplish. If urban dwellers get pleasure doing limited farming, in spite of their daily chores, encouraging them to indulge in this hobby can be justified from social and psychological angles. But definitely not to solve the food problem of a whole community. In cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore etc such proposals might be construed as incongruous and crazy because of huge pressure on land, power and water and the vice-like grip, the real estate mafia has on these land starved metropolitan entities.

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

'HOBBY' FARMS-THE AMATEUR 'FARMERS'!

In India 70% of the population coming under the category of farmers produce food for the remaining 30% who are urbanites with no clue regarding the dynamics of farming including raising live stocks and poultry. Because of these sheer numbers, the average size of such farms, if they can be called so, is very small, some times less than two acres. In contrast, in the West farming operations are gigantic with hundreds and thousands of acres cultivated using highly mechanized operations. Hardly 2% of the population in some of these countries raise food for the entire country. A new trend is now emerging involving non-farmers who take up 'gardening', mostly as a part time activity in small stretches of land producing crops like sweet potatoes, squash, cabbage, cucumbers, turnips, beetroot etc largely for self consumption. Excess, if any is channeled into farmer's markets and road side stands, earning small returns supplementing their regular income.

"The produce and meat raised by these small farms, sometimes called "hobby" or "lifestyle" farms, provides much of the food found at the nation's farmers' markets and roadside stands, said Maria I. Marshall, an associate professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University. Many of the farms raise specialized crops and practice organic or sustainable farming".

Most of the hobby farms believe in organic foods and local produce movement and earning is only incidental. In the US alone there are more than 232000 such small farms operating with less than 10 acres of land for each. Large farms are getting bigger and bigger due to consolidation. How long this trend will last remains to be seen. It is an irony that small farms provide hobby for western families whereas it is the norm in many developing countries where subsistence farmers struggle to keep their body and soul together!.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com