Millions of city dwellers grow vegetables and fruit trees in their home gardens for family and sales.
In Dhaka, 7,500 families grow crops in small home spaces (such as patios, balconies, etc.). 700,000 city dwellers are engaged in gardening to meet their needs and earn extra income. In cities such as Bamako (the financial capital), Accra (the capital of Ghana) and Kumasi (a city in Ghana), between 60 and 100 percent of leafy vegetables are consumed, depending on the product and season, creating between 1,000 and 15,000 jobs.
Even a metropolis like Shanghai, with about 15 percent population growth each year, sees urban agriculture as an important part of its economic system. About 15% of the world’s food is currentlyproduced in urban areas. According to the FAO, urban food farms provide about 700 million city dwellers, about a quarter of the world’s urban population.
Many cities in developing countries face the challenge of creating formal job opportunities. Urban agriculture, meanwhile, can play an important role not only in increasing food security but also in improving nutrition, reducing poverty, developing the local economy and creating jobs, as well as recycling municipal waste.
Cuba has a system oforganic urban farms called Organopónicos, which has been created to provide a new source of organic food, to develop neighborhoods, to beautify urban areas, as well as job opportunities. Cuba has more than 7,000 organopónicos; There are 200 orchards in Havana, the capital of Cuba, covering more than 35,000 hectares of land, as well as providing 90% of the citizens’ fruits and vegetables. In Havana, 117,000 jobs have been created and the income of 150,000 low-income families comes directly from urban and semi-urban agriculture.
In the city of Cagayan de Oro in the Philippines, 9% of the economically active population is employed in agriculture, of which there are 13,000 farmers in the metropolitan area; 40% of all households have a backyard garden and 70% of the demand for fish is generated in the city..
In Mumbai, a vertical farming association (Vertical Farming Association) has been established with the aim of promoting vertical farming andis aeroponics; aeroponics, an air – based plant growth that does not require soil and sunlight (from LEDs are used) and dramatically reduces water consumption by almost 95%.
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