Thinking on Growing Urbanization, Sustainability and Food Supply: The Need of Urban Agriculture

Abstract

By 2050, it is projected that 68 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities. At the same time, mankind is facing the tasks to tackle climate change and to produce enough food for a growing world population. Those trends claim to rethink how cities should be planned, and how agriculture can become resilient and deliver sufficient crop yield in a changing climate. This paper offers an insight into the idea of urban agriculture as a solution for those challenges in an urban context, considering the urbanization trend, the role of cities in climate change, and the issues of limited space in urban areas and agricultural habits. It argues for an implementation of agriculture into urban planning in relation to ecological agricultural practices. Pursuing ecological practices like Conservation Agriculture improves the health of soils which results in a higher crop yield. Therefore, ecological practices in cities are a key to produce vegetables and fruits for the urban demand and to reduce transport emissions. Furthermore, with an extension of green spaces in urban areas through ecological cultivated land, the urban heat island effect can be decreased, more carbon can be stored in healthy soils, and water run-off can be improved which reduces the likelihood of urban flood events.