What are Urban Farming Trends? How is urban farming becoming a source of income?

Urban farming: The picture that emerges in your mind on hearing the word ‘farming’ would be of an open field in a village and a farmer sweating in it, right? But with the changing times, this picture of farming has also changed. Now farming is not only done on open land in the village, but also in the rooms and roofs of the city, and this has also become necessary. With the speed at which the crowd is increasing in the cities, it has become very important to meet their need for food, especially fruits and vegetables, that these are produced in the cities itself. This has also started, in the form of urban farming. Many Urban Farming trends are going on these days. So how is urban farming done and how can it become a source of income? Let’s know.

What is urban farming? 

There are no open fields in cities like in villages, so many people grow vegetables and fruits of their need by making a small garden outside the house, roof of the house, balcony or vertical garden inside the house, while some do it on a large scale as a business, this is called urban farming.

In the farming done inside the house, temperature etc. is controlled according to one’s own requirement. Usually, farmers need only some space and electricity to do farming through vertical farming or hydroponics method in cities. Urban farming is being done on a large scale on a commercial level in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata.

Urban farming on a small scale 

There are two types of urban farming in our country. One is those people who grow vegetables and fruits on the roof of the house, balcony for their own needs, so that they can get fresh fruits and vegetables every day. Such people love the environment very much. Also, they are very careful about the health of their family. That is why we do organic farming at home on a small scale. There are many such startups and people in India who not only do urban farming themselves, but also train people in urban farming.

Kitchen Gardening in Delhi 

Atithi Popli, a resident of Vikaspuri, Delhi, has been doing kitchen gardening for 25 years. She also gives importance to organic farming completely.

Atithi Popli grows vegetables like cucumber, tinda, bottle gourd, zucchini, bitter gourd, coriander, mustard, spinach, beetroot and fenugreek in summer. Apart from this, she also cultivates medicinal plants in the kitchen garden. She has grown many herbs like aloe vera, brahmi, giloy, moringa in her kitchen garden. Atithi has grown all these in pots or in a small piece of land. She says that her family members are also happy with this, because they get fresh vegetables.

Atithi not only grows vegetables, but also prepares seeds. She uses organic fertilizer in kitchen gardening. She told that the fertilizer made from buttermilk is beneficial for plants in the summer season. In this, buttermilk is kept in an earthen pot for 15 to 20 days and then poured into the plants.

Atithi Popli also gives training in kitchen gardening. Women, youth and children, people come to her for training both offline and online. 

Vertical gardening in Bihar 

One such person is Sunita Prasad, a resident of Chhapra, Bihar. Who has created the concept of vertical garden with the help of PVC pipe and bamboo on the roof of the house. Regarding starting gardening on the roof, she told that once there was a pipe lying on the roof like this. After a few days, when she saw, soil had collected in that pipe and some grass had grown. This is where she got the idea of ​​​​farming in the pipe. Now with the vertical farming technique, she is growing everything from green vegetables to onions, lemon and ginger. She grows almost all seasonal vegetables including brinjal, cabbage, coriander, beetroot, turnip, cucumber, aloe vera, sapota.

She advises that if the pipe is a bit expensive, then as an alternative, vertical garden can also be made from bamboo. Sunita has also been honoured with many awards for her innovation in farming. She also inspires other people to do gardening on the roof.

Large scale urban farming 

This was about small scale farming, but urban farming can also be done as a large scale business. Many educated youth are earning good profits by farming through vertical farming or hydroponics.

One such youth is Lakshya Dabas, who recently won the National Agri Creator title. Engineering pass out Lakshya Dabas worked in a corporate for one year after completing college. He did not like it there. His family was associated with agriculture, so he developed an inclination towards it. His family has been doing organic farming for about 36 years. He has a farm named ‘Organic Acre’. 

Organic Acre works in the field of agri-tourism and agro-education along with organic farming. They also rent out their farm for farming. In this, the customer can get any vegetable cultivated as per his choice. They do farming throughout the year. They cultivate 5 to 6 crops at a time in a year. For this, they do planning in advance. 

Why is urban farming necessary? 

To meet the demand of the growing population, large scale production is needed and cultivable land is gradually decreasing. In such a situation, if urban people start growing the vegetables of their need themselves, then what can be better than this. Usually people grow fruits and vegetables in an organic way on the roof or inside the house. And in urban farming, methods like hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaponics are used, in which vegetables can be grown organically on less land. Agricultural scientists also believe that the way cultivable land is decreasing, urban farming done with new technology has become necessary.

Types of urban farming 

Urban farming can be done in many ways, if you are also fond of gardening and want to earn some extra money, you can do any of these types of urban farming-

Backyard garden- If you have empty space behind your house, then you can grow vegetables there, you can give them to neighbours and also sell them.

Street landscaping- In this, plants can be planted on the private road side, which not only look beautiful, but also provide the required vegetables.

Vertical farming- Crops are grown by doing soilless farming on the roof or inside the house with techniques like aquaponics, aeroponics and hydroponics.

Forest gardening- Different types of fruits and vegetables can be grown in urban forests. While the forest provides a suitable environment for crops to grow, it is also helpful in combating the increasing global warming in cities.

Rooftop garden-

Gardens on the roof of buildings provide temperature control, architectural enhancement, wildlife habitat, entertainment and food production.

Green wall- Where there is no space inside the house or on the roof, then some such structure is made so that fruits and vegetables can be grown lengthwise on the wall, because the entire wall appears green when cultivated in this way, hence it is called green wall.

Urban beekeeping- This is also a part of urban farming in which healthy and more productive bees are promoted by keeping bee colonies in urban areas.

Greenhouse farming- This is also a method of farming in urban areas, in which crops are grown in a controlled environment. In this method of farming, plants can be protected from pests and extreme heat and cold outside.

Aquaponics-

Farming without soil is called hydroponic farming and fish farming using biofloc technology instead of pond is called aquaculture. When these two techniques are combined, it is called aquaponic farming. The fishes in the tank are kept and they defecate in it after eating, due to which the feces start accumulating continuously which is harmful for the fishes, but this water containing feces is used in hydroponic farming, because it is beneficial for the growth of plants. Using this technique saves water.

If farming is done on a large scale in urban areas, then fresh fruits and vegetables will be available to the people there at an affordable price. The youth will get employment opportunities, because if farming is done with modern technology, then the resources will be used better. Since most of the farming is done organically, it will be beneficial for both human health and the environment.