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Urban agriculture for a sustainable city

Md. Zahidur Rahman And Saeed Ahmed Siddiquee
At the beginning of the new millennium we live in a world of unprecedented population numbers. And currently cities are populated by about half of the world's population, a figure which is probably to increase to two-thirds by 2030. Currently, each person shares 4.7 acres of land considering almost 22 billion acres of productive land on earth.
However each person requires 6.2 acres for a satisfactory standard of living. Following this, earth is supposed to support only 3.5 billion people. But it already has a 6 billion population! How can they survive? Many poor countries have a small appropriated productive land, for
example Mozambicans have 1.2 acres of land per person. They are malnourished and disturbing their environment to survive.
On the contrary, Americans and Australians have an appropriated productive land of 24.7 acres per person. In fact, at the present time, there is sufficient food to feed the world's current population. But, the going on improper distribution is resulting in nearly one billion malnourished, often affected by diseases. It is of crucial importance for cities in developed countries to use resources more efficiently and that certainly includes their food supply. Urban agriculture makes a crucial contribution here.
Most of the cities have been designed with farmland for ensuring food security, timber, metabolism of nature, and envi-
ronmental protection. Even bio-fertilizer derived from urban solid waste has use for designed farmland productivity. For example, megacity Shanghai is significantly designed with farmland on its edge for mostly rice and wheat cultivation for feeding the city. Apart from that, almost 10,000 hectares on the outskirts of Shanghai are intensely cultivated for a great variety of vegetables for the city population. Interestingly, majority of the farmers depend on bio-fertilizer for their agriculture which comes from urban solid waste management. Urban agriculture can help cities make the best possible use of organic waste materials. A city is sustainable in terms of urban agriculture, it being able to supply food and offer livelihoods for city people.
Now we have to look at the country feature of Bangladesh. What is the scenario actually we observe in Dhaka city? Dhaka is now one of the world's fastest growing megacities. The metropolitan city of Dhaka has an area of 131sqkm with approximately 20 million population. In recent times, Dhaka has been challenged by numerous difficulties like unplanned urbanization, extensive urban poverty, growth of urban slums and squatters, food insecurity, solid waste management problem and environmental degradation. For better understanding of city sustainability, agriculture coverage, food security and appropriate solid waste management are being considered crucially.
According to an expert in the domain, Mohammad Nasir Uddin (2007), only 2.5% land is remaining for agricultural purposes within the Dhaka city jurisdiction. Presently, cultivable land is getting reduced alarmingly due to increasing population pressure leading to increasing demand for habitation in the urban area. As a consequence, agricultural land as well as agricultural production have decreased for Dhaka city. Presently, total food demand of city dwellers is met either from peri-urban area or areas further and further away from the city. Even daily vegetable demand is not met from urban household cultivation practices. However, transport facilities have
made it possible to bring supplies from further and further away which, however, add extra cost on the supplied food. That may not be affordable for all people especially the poor in the urban area.
According to another expert, Md. Rubayet Mortuza (2011), about 80,220 hectares are covered by concrete as a continuous roof, which is 65% of the area of Dhaka city. This space may provide a great opportunity to extend green coverage for food production for feeding the urban dwellers. Although insignificant number of city dwellers have already started rooftop gardening, but it focuses only on aesthetic value rather than on food production. City dwellers should be more concerned for food production for themselves.
According to the JICA (2005), per capita waste generation rate in Dhaka city is found to be 0.56 kg/capita/day. Presently, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) is facing serious problem in dumping solid waste which is creating public health related problems for urban dwellers. If this situation continued then Dhaka would soon become an urban slum. But there is a great opportunity to manage the waste by transforming it into bio-fertilizer for both urban
and nearby peri-urban agriculture farms.
Hence, we should take some initiatives to make urban agriculture practice a must for a sustainable city which also facilitates solid waste management. We should make sure the use of bio-fertilizer for peri-urban and urban agriculture, increase roof gardening also for food, enhance farmers' motivation for using bio-fertilizer, strengthen civil society organizations' (CSOs) consciousness for urban agriculture for a sustainable city. Providing subsides by the government to bio-fertilizer producer and consumer, increased effective coordination among Department of Agriculture Extension, Department of Environment and Dhaka City Corporation and other related departments should be ensured for urban and peri-urban agriculture through solid waste management. Eventually, decentralisation of administrative activities should be ensured for reducing urban population pressure on lands around the capital to allow its own food production as a sustainable city. In this lies a solution for its future as well.
The writers work In the Climate Change Cell of Eminence.
Can be reached at zahid@emlnence-bd.org and sa eed @e m I ne nee- bd. o r g r es pect I vely.