Urban 'Organic' farming should start now

Let me tell you a story. Imagine after 20 -25 years, the fossil fuel stock nearly gone. Some stock is still present in first world but these are restricted who can afford the high cost. Country like Bangladesh, the fossil fuel leaded agro-fertilizer and irrigation system clasped day by day. Daily vegetable, fruits and other necessary agro-product are limited merchandise from village. 

The urban daily food supply percentage is regularly lower then any time past and the food crisis began. People who have to live here for their livelihood can't back to village. The urban system will fall down. What will be the situation? Is it like the manuscript of a Hollywood Movie? No, it is neither a Hollywood movie nor a bad dream of a naturalist, a geologist or a scientist. It is true and it will happen within 20 years or hardly 30. 

Total world fossil fuel index tells us the statistics. In Bangladesh, it will also happen within the predicting years. So we should have to take some steps now.  A good percentage of the urban people in Bangladesh have purchased land as a future investment and those lands are mostly unused. Urban farming can be easily started from there. And the farming would be organic based, because though this concept is old but it is not usually used in rural Bangladesh in the name of productivity and cost effective.

Urban farming is the practice of cultivating, processing and distributing food in, or around (pre-urban) a village, town or city. Additionally, urban farming can also grip husbandry, aquaculture, agro-forestry and horticulture. These actions also take place in pre-urban areas.

Urban farming is usually exercised for income-earning or food-producing activities though in some communities the main impulsion is recreation and relaxation. Urban agriculture contributes to food security and food safety in couple of ways: first, it enhances the amount of food available to people living in cities, and, second, it allows fresh vegetables and fruits and meat products to be made available to urban customers. A frequent and competent form of urban agriculture is the bio-intensive technique. Since urban agriculture promotes energy-saving local food production, urban and pre-urban agriculture are normally seen as sustainable practices.

 Thus we can start implementing urban agriculture in Bangladesh with a view to ensuring food security and a good source of employment for many.

                          

Shariful Alam