Urban gardening is an enterprise that benefits urban areas in both social and economic ways by stimulating the local economy and serving as an effective means of ensuring a family’s food security.
Cultivating, processing, and sharing food in or around urban and peri-urban regions can take on various forms.
Some of the examples of urban agriculture are animal husbandry, aquaculture, urban beekeeping, and horticulture are all examples of urban agriculture.
Plant growth in urban areas takes different shapes and is governed by various factors, including land space, geography, capital requirements, and plant kind.
Urban agriculture is possible on balconies, sunrooms, indoor greenhouses, rooftops, patios, and front and backyards.
Food crops, fruits, plants, and flowers can be grown in pots, old tires, barrels, unused buckets, shoes, watering cans, window boxes, or kiddie pools.
It might be a social movement for sustainable communities, with organic farmers, “foodies,” and “locavores” forming social networks based on a shared ethos of nature and community harmony. We have listed ten ways to promote urban agriculture.
Table of Contents
1. Increase support systems
We must have a good handle on the current landscape to keep advancing in the right path. For example, many of Chicago’s individuals, organizations, businesses, and educational institutions have partnered to map urban agriculture activities throughout the metropolitan area.
More than 890 farms are included in their database. This type of information, which can assist connect urban farmers and other stakeholders, including possible funders, has to be created in more places.
Governments, metropolitan city planners, and policymakers can benefit from such databases. The UN has previously released studies on urban and peri-urban farming in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
These materials and more significant worldwide inventories are valuable, and updating them would benefit all stakeholders who want to see urban agriculture grow in cities worldwide.
To persuade governments, these organizations must create compelling narratives that explain the benefits of supporting urban farming.
The Agriculture Advocates Work Group in Detroit and the Urban Agriculture Working Group in Los Angeles are two coalitions that have persuaded local governments to establish rules allowing people to farm in urban areas.
Farmers in Motherwell, South Africa, are pleading with city officials to provide more space to expand their urban pig farms.
2. Create inventory
A company’s inventory can make or break it. Brands can fulfill orders on time and adequately with accurate inventory tracking.
And as businesses expand beyond modest warehouses and into more extensive facilities, so does the necessity to manage inventory properly. Orders are filled and dispatched to customers more promptly with good inventory management.
3. Lobby for more land
Agriculture and related activities are prohibited in many cities due to zoning rules. Residents in residential zoning areas in Los Angeles, for example, were barred from planting crops until June 2010.
Portland, Oregon, prohibited agriculture as a principal use in several zoning areas until June 2012. As a result, more municipal governments must set aside land for urban agriculture to allow urban farming to occur.
Advocacy groups and local communities may be able to intervene depending on how cities prioritize land for food over other development plans.
These organizations must construct convincing narratives that illustrate the benefits of supporting urban farming to persuade governments.
Two examples of coalitions that have persuaded local governments to develop laws permitting people to farm in urban areas are the Agriculture Advocates Work Group in Detroit and the Urban Agriculture Working Group in Los Angeles.
4. Create incentives for farming
Increasing financial incentives for urban farming could encourage it to expand. If a certain percentage of their food is purchased from urban farms, several public schools, hospitals, and other public institutions, such as colleges, are eligible for tax breaks.
Such agreements help ensure that product from urban farms has a market. Some governments and municipalities have programs to assist such institutions in rethinking their procurement strategies to enhance the share of locally grown products in their purchases.
Food merchants may be eligible for government tax breaks if they sell items from urban farms. Furthermore, urban farms may be eligible for tax advantages if they donate extra produce to food banks and charities.
Most crucially, the government may provide financial incentives to urban farms that collaborate with food pantries and banks to ensure that those on food stamps can purchase fresh produce from urban farms.
5. Educational exhibits for public events
Exhibits should include vital lessons and cover all animal and agricultural production areas. Videos and photographs can take the audience on a virtual tour of a farm or through the stages of safe food production.
The general public is curious about the production cycle, how farmers and 4-H members care for their animals, how they safeguard the environment and ensure that the food they produce is healthy and nutritious.
People are frequently astonished to learn about animal by-products and the numerous uses of crops. The more participatory or visible an exhibit can be, the better.
Members can have a lot of fun collaborating on posters, tabletop displays, demonstrations, movies, making a model, or creating a game or scavenger hunt to promote their agricultural messages.
6. Social media
Social media allows potential clients to express interest in your business and products in a low-commitment and straightforward method.
Increasing your social media followers enhances conversion rates, and the more followers a company has, the more trust and credibility it has.
The twenty-first century’s power is now literally in our hands. We’ve never had such a reliable tool to communicate with millions of people from the comfort of our own homes, and it’s transforming the way businesses are done all around the world.
The voice now has more power thanks to social media. The agricultural industry’s value of social media is based on the importance of social capital.
It brings the farmer, the industry, and the consumer closer together, resulting in more supply chain transparency, engagement, trust, and authenticity.
7. Give excellent client service
Often, the best marketing strategy is also the most cost-effective. This saying is no more true than when it comes to the marketing value of excellent customer service.
Good customer service is much better than providing lousy customer service, but bad customer service can cost you your business.
Small efforts can make a big difference, whether it’s standing behind a transaction, responding to voicemail and email immediately, or handwriting a thank-you note to include with an order.
8. Awareness
Urban gardening allows city dwellers to eat fresh, locally grown food. Urban agriculture, on the other hand, can only be successfully integrated into urban settings if customers view urban agriculture favorably and accept urban farms as part of their community.
The success of urban agriculture is based on the good perceptions of those who live nearby, and this view has a significant impact on the acceptance of farming nearby. And it’s crucial to spread positive perception awareness since it provides insight into your thoughts.
9. Talk about agriculture with the general people
These discussions can take many forms, from a young person contacting local businesses to interacting with participants at public events to presenting presentations at community meetings, school, or other youth initiatives.
Business owners and community leaders are curious about what adolescents learn from their agricultural experiences, and peers and the general public frequently have questions and misconceptions about food production and farm methods.
10. Volunteering at agriculture education events
Breakfast on the Farm, Agriculture Awareness Days, Project RED (Rural Education Days), open houses/field tours, events to educate policymakers, farmer school visits, or food tasting events can be excellent agricultural events for volunteering.
Conclusion
With the advent of urbanization, one answer to this problem is to establish and expand urban agriculture. Urban agriculture is a rapidly growing segment of the farming industry.
That strives to boost overall food production in urban and peri-urban regions by converting vacant land into agricultural farms.
As the world’s population grows and arable land is depleted, urban gardening improves the land area used for agriculture, enhancing food security.
Promoting urban agriculture is critical, and the government should prioritize it. It might be the mode of income for someone or hobby farm for others. Learn more about Hobby farm in our article: What is Hobby Farm?
(Last Updated on December 3, 2021 by Sadrish Dabadi)
