Although it seems unbelievable, produce specific crops in the city at least twice the yield than in rural areas. This is true for cucumbers, potatoes and lettuce, among other species, as recently discovered by a group of scientists.
As the urban population grows, urban agriculture is increasingly seen as a local source of food and a way to save on the shopping cart, as well as provide healthy produce. But Until now, the performance of productive agriculture has never been compared to that of traditional rural agriculture. New study published in the journal The Future of the World AGU has shown that urban gardens and hydroponics can match and sometimes exceed the yields of rural farms.
“Despite its growing popularity, there is still a lot we don’t know about urban farming, such as whether the yield is similar to conventional farming or even what crops are typically grown,” says Florian Payen, an environmental scientist at Lancaster University. and lead author of the study.
Research compiled studies on urban agriculture from 53 countries find out which crops grow well in cities, which growing methods are most effective, and which areas can be used to grow crops. The researchers found that for some crops, such as cucumbers, tubers and lettuce, urban yields were two to four times higher than in conventional agriculture. And many other urban crops studied are produced at similar or higher rates than in rural settings.
Much of the work on urban agriculture has focused on green spaces such as private and community gardens, parks, and field farming operations. In its place, Payen’s work includes “grey” areas, places like roofs and building facades that have already been built in cities but could be used for farming.. The study compares a range of crops produced in both natural and controlled conditions, in both green and gray fields, in soil and hydroponic, with both horizontal and vertical cultivation.
“Surprisingly, there was little difference in overall yields in indoor and outdoor green spaces, but there were clear differences in the suitability of crop types for different built areas,” Payen says. Some crops, such as lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli, are naturally better suited to growing indoors vertically than others. “You can’t quite stack apple trees in a five- or ten-tier high-growth chamber,” he admits, “yet we found one study that succeeded in growing stacked wheat this way.”
Other crops such as juicy vegetables (e.g. tomatoes) and leafy greens did well in hydroponic settings. Y Crops grown in fully controlled environments are viable year-round, allowing for more annual harvests It provides higher annual yield than in outdoor environments. But the authors say scientists need to study these systems further to plan profitable farming solutions.
The finding that urban farming can have similar or higher yields than conventional farming “was exactly what we expected in the urban farming research community,” says environmental scientist Erica Dorr at AgroParisTech, who was not involved in the study. .
Current estimates indicate that between 5% and 10% of legumes, vegetables and tubers are grown in urban settings, and between 15% and 20% of the world’s food is produced in cities. But tracking the amount of food a city can produce on its own is difficult without performance information like the data presented in Payen’s study.
“This is the first step”, says Payen. Once scientists have accurate estimates of urban crop yield, they can map a city’s potential growing areas and calculate how much food can be produced there.
“That’s the power of this dataset, so planners and policymakers can see if it’s worth investing in, for example, roof gardens or greenhouses, or whether hydroponic systems would be better.” Future work too It can use this data to predict the potential of cities to meet future food demand. and the possibility of cities becoming self-sufficient in terms of food production.
Lack of data has sometimes delayed progress in implementing effective and functional urban agriculture. “As we interacted and spoke with different stakeholders, such as government agencies and local councils, we realized that, The lack of robust and comprehensive data on urban agricultural yields hindered their progress. and we support the development and implementation of urban food farming,” adds Payen.
It remains to be seen whether food growing in cities has a lower or higher overall carbon footprint than conventional agriculture; the answer will likely vary from case to case. Researchers are also studying how food grown in cities may be affected by pollution.
Reference work: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022EF002748
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