Metropolitan agriculture
Introduction
Urban agriculture, also known as peri-urban (this is cultivated in the immediate surroundings of cities, often on land qualified or planned for the growth of the city or the provision of equipment or infrastructure), is the practice of agriculture with crops within the urban area.
The land used for urban gardens can be private, public or residential in spaces such as balconies, walls, roofs of buildings, public streets or banks and old deforested forests of rivers. On many occasions, agriculture is practiced on occupied land, public or private properties in a state of abandonment.
Urban agriculture is carried out for food production activities. It contributes to food sovereignty and food security in two ways: by increasing the amount of food available to city dwellers, and secondly by providing fresh vegetables and fruits for urban consumers.
Because it promotes energy savings, local food production, urban and peri-urban agriculture are sustainability activities. It can, however, cause problems and social conflicts in the case of the use of abandoned private lands for the location of clandestine "family gardens." These uncontrolled actions can also pose problems derived from the lack of quality of the water used for irrigation, often wastewater. It also requires a type of management that goes beyond the agronomic or even the social, since it becomes an aspect of urban planning.
Urban agriculture has also been a meeting point and resistance for local community actors in Latin America. In cities like Bogotá, the urban garden promotes the use and reuse of renewable resources, protection of ecosystems, for example edges of streams, wetlands, and green areas within the city, the recovery of the social fabric through neighborhood integration, the promotion of good behavior and civility; It is an alternative lifestyle.[1].
History
In the semi-desert cities of Persia, oases were fed by aqueducts that carried water from the mountains to support intensive food production, nourished by the communities' waste.[2] At Machu Picchu, water was conserved and reused as part of the city's tiered architecture, and vegetable beds were designed to collect the sun in order to prolong the growing season.[2].
The idea of supplemental food production beyond rural agricultural operations and distant imports is not new. It was used during war and depression, when problems of food shortages arose, as well as in times of relative plenty. Gardens emerged in Germany at the beginning of the century as a response to poverty and food insecurity.[3]