Urban Agriculture

There’s a way for ordinary city dwellers to beat skyrocketing prices of food and even generate additional income. Plant in your own backyard, and if you don’t have one, try container farming.

In the best-selling book Urban Agriculture co-authored by Rodolfo C. Undan, Pedrito S. Nitural, Anselmo S. Roque and Dante Liban, professors of the Central Luzon State University in the Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, readers are guided step-by-step to succeed in container farming.

The authors point out that city folks can actually take stock instead of just complaining about soaring prices of everyday staples such as fruits and vegetables which often after being exposed to elements after long hours of travel from the provinces to its destinations in major public markets in Metro Manila, are no longer in their freshest condition.

"It is next to impossible to taste the natural sweetness that fresh produce has . . . plus imagine the nutrition leached out of the produce with the hours of travel from the farm to our tables. All in all, urbanites get a very bad deal in this situation," says the authors.

The authors stress that urban agriculture could alleviate malnutrition problems of poor city dwellers living below the poverty level, while encouraging city folks to make use of ordinary available materials to grow vegetables and fruits for their own consumption.

The authors define "container farming" as essentially farming using recycled containers. This can be done in any available space in the city, which has access to sunlight and air. With the right containers and growing media, many agricultural products can be produced in all types of spaces, even inside the house. Examples of planting containers are old sacks, plastic bags, hollow blocks and used tires.

In choosing a location, an important requirement is for the area to have access to a minimum six hours of sunlight daily. Another factor to consider is the amount of air movement. There must be sufficient breeze so that water used in watering containers can evaporate readily in the daytime. Too much wind will result in wind burn, the leaves dry out and break. On the other hand, lack of air movement will cause the plants to get waterlogged and induce fungus growth that will lead plants to rot.

The book's authors also recommend what fruits and vegetables to plant. The main thing is that there should be bio-diversity such as fruit-bearing trees, edible herbs, vegetables, natural grain, ornamental plants and medicinal plants.

The advantage of bio-diversified planting is that it makes it difficult for insects pests to attack one specific plant because some plants have natural immunity and protective capabilities against certain insects.

The book also devoted an entire chapter to illustrate various landscapes which urban gardeners could adopt in planning their container farm gardens. The examples include a model for apartment houses, a hi-rise balcony garden, a hi-rise rooftop garden and empty city lots converted to a container farm garden.

For urbanities who have never done this sort of thing, the steps and techniques as explained and illustrated is easy to follow, and convince them to give it a try.

These include information on choosing containers, sourcing seeds, planting depth and distance of some common vegetable crops, compost making, watering needs, cultivating and weeding fertilizer use, identifying and controlling common pests and diseases of fruits and vegetables. (To be continued)