Urban Agriculture

( Article Type: Explanation )

Cities and towns are not the places where one would usually think that agriculture should be undertaken, but urban agriculture can be a valuable contribution to the development of sustainable cities. Agriculture in urban areas has a number of benefits: (1) Idle land that would otherwise turn into unsightly dump sites can be utilised and beautified through the growing of crops. (2) Using wastewater from drains, stormwater drains and other uses (Greywater) means that resources are saved. (3) Household waste can be composted and used to fertilise the crops thus encouraging recycling. (4) The urban communities will benefit through the additional supply of fresh food or added income through the sale of harvested products. Urban agriculture forms one of the parts of a sustainable development philosophy and can be found in most Local Agenda 21 programmes.