Georgiadis, Pavlos (author), Schumacher, Jorg (author), Hilscher, Manuel (author), Manoharan, Dhusenti (author), Birkenberg, Athena (author), Schwizer, Steffen (author), Idel, Anita (author), Hudson-Wiedenmann, Ursula (author), Herren, Hans Rudolf (author), Gottwald, Franz-Theo (author), Fadani, Andrea (author), Bellows, Anne C. (author), Kruse, Michael (author), and Zeller, Manfred (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2010-09-16
Published:
Germany
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 181 Document Number: C36560
Notes:
Tropentag 2010 Conference on International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development, Zurich, Switzerland, September 14-16, 2010. 4 pages.
17pgs, There is a lack of data on resources used and food produced at urban farms. This hampers attempts to quantify the environmental impacts of urban agriculture or craft policies for sustainable food production in cities. To address this gap, we used a citizen science approach to collect data from 72 urban agriculture sites, representing three types of spaces (urban farms, collective gardens, individual gardens), in five countries (France, Germany, Poland, United Kingdom, and United States). We answered three key questions about urban agriculture with this unprecedented dataset: (1) What are its land, water, nutrient, and energy demands? (2) How productive is it relative to conventional agriculture and across types of farms? and (3) What are its contributions to local biodiversity? We found that participant farms used dozens of inputs, most of which were organic (e.g., manure for fertilizers). Farms required on average 71.6 L of irrigation water, 5.5 L of compost, and 0.53 m2 of land per kilogram of harvested food. Irrigation was lower in individual gardens and higher in sites using drip irrigation. While extremely variable, yields at well-managed urban farms can exceed those of conventional counterparts. Although farm type did not predict yield, our cluster analysis demonstrated that individually managed leisure gardens had lower yields than other farms and gardens. Farms in our sample contributed significantly to local biodiversity, with an average of 20 different crops per farm not including ornamental plants. Aside from clarifying important trends in resource use at urban farms using a robust and open dataset, this study also raises numerous questions about how crop selection and growing practices influence the environmental impacts of growing food in cities. We conclude with a research agenda to tackle these and other pressing questions on resource use at urban farms.
Liniger, Hanspeter (author) and Schwilch, Gudrun (author)
Format:
Abstract
Publication Date:
2010-09-14
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 178 Document Number: C30709
Notes:
Paper presented at Tropentag 2010, Conference on International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development, Zurich, Switzerland, September 14-16, 2010. 1 page.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C17257
Notes:
Pages 177-183 in Carine Alders, Bertus Haverkort and Laurens van Veldhuizen (eds.), Linking with farmers: networking for low-external-input and sustainable agriculture. Intermediate Technology Publications, London, UK. 298 pages.
