How Do You Make Urban Agriculture Successful: Science? Advocacy? Citizens? NOTA!

Everyone seems to be talking about Urban Agriculture, UA, but only SEARCA Policy Paper 2020-3 has been revealing to me, with its long title, “Policy Imperatives To Promote Urban Agriculture In Response To COVID-19 Pandemic Among Local Government Units In The Philippines,” a long line of authors: Rico C Ancog, Glenn B Gregorio, Arlene B Arcillas, Erlinda C Creencia, Victorino E Aquitania, Gerald Glenn F Panganiban, and Garry A Hidalgo; but a content of only 8 pages. Short and sweet.

How do you push urban agriculture? Do you talk about rapid urbanization and increasing urban population? Do you talk about the intricate link between food on people’s plates, food systems, food security, or nutrition, or safety? Stop! None of the above. NOTA.

Revelation: Searca Policy Paper 2020-3 says if you want sustainability of your urban agriculture, your highly significant move is to move the whole local government unit, LGU:

Sustainability of the urban agriculture strategy is highly determined by financial and political legitimacy. Formal recognition and support for urban agriculture is beneficial for both urban farmers and the city. Overall, implementation depends on the measures of financial, physical, social, and human capital that the local government could invest in, commit, and sustain.

So, to push urban agriculture, first you push your LGU!

Local government units are in a strategic position to perform a catalytic role in promoting urban agriculture by providing opportunities that will make it a habit among its constituents. And this can be operationalized by mainstreaming UA in its land-use plan and climate change adaptation formulation process.

So, turning urban agriculture into success turns out to be more exciting as you mainstream UA in the local land-use plan and incorporate it in the climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation processes – no, climate change adaptation is not enough.

The quantity and quality of food surely depends on the condition of agricultural food systems. As consumers’ awareness about the intricate link between the food on their plate and the status of the entire agricultural food system increases, the more they become active participants in interventions related to food security, nutrition, and safety.

And these are the duties of the LGU: make citizens ever aware of the condition of the national and the local food systems, and their necessary contributions to food security, nutrition, and safety. It is the LGU that moves mountains – it is the citizens who are the mountains!

In urban agriculture, you have the visible problem and the invisible promise:

Agricultural production in an urban context is challenged by the limited availability of land, competing land uses, and localizing sources of farm inputs. Urban agriculture, however, has great potential to create and use alternative technologies to make agricultural production in urban areas sustainable.

Alternative technologies. That is to say, where rural agriculture is characterized by obedience to already established systems of production of food, urban agriculture must be characterized by innovation – which elevates UA from merely working with the hands to working with the mind first of all.

I love urban agriculture already!@517