It is true that there is a disparity between being aware of urban farming and achieving urban food security through urban farming — that’s the challenge that Malaysian city farmers are currently facing. Around the world, local governments, non-profit organisations, and citizens are constantly collaborating to execute long-term urban farming projects that strive to increase local production in their respective cities; their success stories should inspire us to do more!
Thailand
Considered as the most up-to-date urban farming project in Thailand, Bangkok City Farm is a collaborative urban farming effort spearheaded by a non-profit organisation, community-based organisations, and quasi-autonomous national government to develop household and community farms in Bangkok city.
Bangkok City Farm’s collaboration with Openspace to promote sustainable farming designs. Photo Source: Openspace
With large networks of organisations supporting the programme, City Farm engages with the community-supported agriculture (CSA) system, working with city farmers to set in motion institutional gardens as learning centres to educate city dwellers about urban farming. Nine months after City Farm was launched in 2011, 27 projects under this programme had already predicted an increase of edible urban green spaces, along with the reduction of food waste through composting.
Argentina
The largest city in Argentina, Rosario had long integrated agriculture into urban planning, with the Metropolitan Strategic Plan 2008-2018 that strived to create a “green circuit” that will go around the city, passing by community gardens, commercial farms, and parks. In fact, agriculture is combined in the design of housing production, a.k.a “productive barrios” to ensure the continuity of the circuit.
A complete overview of the “green circuit” in Rosario, Argentina. Photo Source: FAO
The centrepiece of this green circuit has to be the city’s multipurpose garden parks with five landscaped green areas covering72 hectares of land used for urban farming and other cultural, sports, and educational events.
France
Paris’ Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced the launch of Parisculteurs in 2016, an urban model that aimed to cover the city’s rooftop and walls with 100 hectares of vegetation by 2020, with one-third of this space dedicated to urban farming.
An employee of Aéromate working on a rooftop farm approved by Parusculteurs. Photo Source: iGrow
By 2018, 75 approved projects were already covering 15 hectares of spaces with 500 tonnes of projected harvest. 120 (and counting) full-time jobs were created thanks to Parisculteurs. One of the star projects, Aéromate set up LaChambeaudie Farm on top of a medical centre in Paris, adopting a hydroponic system to grow at least 40 varieties of plants and herbs to be sold at local grocery stores. A force that should be reckoned, Aéromate continued to plan for the setting up more urban farms in Paris, alongside with other projects under the umbrella of Parisculteurs.
Want to know how to get started with your own vegetable farm at home through urban farming? Simply reach out to us at francis@urbanfarmtech.net or give us a call at
+6012 666 7474 and look for Francis.