The Farm in the city: UPSC Daily Important Topic | 7 June 2022

The Farm in the city-

✓Planning for urban agriculture can make cities sustainable, achieve food security

● Repercussions of climate change:

✓PREMATURE summer: The soaring temperatures adversely affect health, cause a dip in agricultural production, and also dry up rivers.

✓Cities are facing the heat largely on account of ill-conceived urbanization:

✓The urban heat island effect.

✓India is rapidly urbanising and is estimated to host 50 percent of its population in cities by 2050.

✓Our cities already suffer from a number of issues:

✓High population density.

✓Unaffordable housing,

✓Improper waste disposal,

✓Water scarcity most of the year.

✓Flooding during the rains,

✓Pollution and attendant illnesses.

✓Food and nutritional insecurity and

✓Urban poverty, among others.

✓Opportune moment : To engage with urban land-use planning (ULP), especially urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA), as one of the essential elements of sustainable urbanisation.

● Role of green infrastructure (GI):

✓Combating pollution

✓Climate mitigation and adaptation

✓Health and recreational benefits.

✓The Centre’s 2015 AMRUT programme: included green spaces and parks as a thrust area.

● What is left out in urban planning?

✓Agriculture – still seen as a predominantly rural practice.

✓Food and Agricultural Organisation’s(FAO): recognises

Urban Agriculture as a significant contributor to:

✓Food security

✓Livelihood generation

✓Poverty alleviation

✓Urban resilience and sustainability.

✓Urban areas already house at least 55 per cent of the world’s population and consume 80 per cent of the food produced globally.

✓It underlined UPA as key to achieving sustainable food systems.