Urban Farming

irrigationUrban farming is a practice in the city or urban agriculture that deals with growing crops like fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses, etc., and raring domestic animals like poultry, duckery, piggery, etc., to ensure access to adequate food and nutrition within the city limits. City farming has many forms and structures depending on the space used for food production like the kitchen garden, terrace garden, balcony garden, rooftop garden, container garden or vertical farming. Urban farming is the most viable solution for producing food in cities, using freely available natural resources like organic waste and wastewater, and  it is also an economical solution to recycle badly placed organic waste, which is otherwise a nuisance to the city.

Urban farming can be a viable solution to grow food for the people and fodder for the animals in and around city areas on small scales to feed the urban poor in addition to producing food for their own consumption. Urban farmers can grow market-surplus food like fruits and vegetables, mushrooms, poultry, and piggeries to their communities. Approximately  20 percent of the world’s food is produced in urban areas in the form of fresh fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses, fishery, poultry, mushrooms, etc.

Rapid urbanization is taking place, and it grows with urban poverty and food insecurity in urban pockets. It is estimated that by the year 2020, the food prices all over the world are soaring owing to the removal of both subsidies and price control that has eliminated access to adequate food by the poor people.

Urban farming is different from rural farming in that it is integrated, embedded, and interacting with the urban socioeconomic and ecological system. Such linkages include viable use of human and natural resources like unemployed youth as a working force, organic solid waste as manure and waste, and wastewater for irrigation. The city farming practices become integrated with part of urban consumption, urban ecology, and the urban food supply system.

Why urban farming matters:

It emerged as the frontier of a burgeoning trend in local food and community resiliency. Vegetables from the city are finding their way into food carts, menus.

The urban farming trend is not being ignored by local governments, as many municipalities are starting to incorporate policy for more local food systems into their planning processes. Support for initiatives associated with food systems is showing up in Official Community Plans, Agriculture Plans, park and neighborhood designs, and food strategies. At the same time, with this rapidly growing interest, many local governments are struggling with how this fits into their land-use policies, regulatory systems, and scope of operations, especially in the context of land being repurposed for growing food. Urban farmers are also looking for ways to eliminate barriers to the practice of farming in the city. The emerging need and opportunity around urban farming are to integrate these activities in a safe and beneficial way.

Importance of urban farming:

Nutritional importance:

The contribution to food security and healthy nutrition is the most important aspect of city farming. In many cases, food production in cities is a response of the urban poor with inadequate and irregular access to food and lack of purchasing power. Growing our own food saves household expenditure on food, and poor people in poor countries generally spend more income on food requirements. Thus, city farming activities can empower urban poor in producing their own food, fruits, and vegetables and safeguard their critical food security in critical times. A global estimate indicates that 15 percent of the world’s food is produced in urban areas.

Clean and green environment:

City farming is part of the urban ecosystem that plays an important role in the management of the urban environmental system. Fast growing cities of the world produce, on a daily basis, more organic solid waste and wastewater than stabilized urban areas and most of them face problems of their disposal which is a costly affair. City farming can effectively help solve such problems by turning urban waste into productive manures. Quality-compost is an important input that can fetch good prices in the local market. The use of compost can prevent or reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and help prevent contamination of groundwater. In addition to this, initiatives in making city compost and vermicompost can effectively convert city-borne solid waste into environment-friendly manures and fertilizers thereby keeping the city environment clean and green. City farmers can use wastewater for irrigating their kitchen gardens without depending on potable drinking water available for family consumption. The fresh wastewater contains many nutrients and organic impurities that can serve as nutrients for crop growth. However, without proper guidance and treatment of wastewater, the use of wastewater can lead to health and environment-related problems like transportation and translocation of heavy metals in the human and animal biosystem. Modern farming technologies such as hydroponics, drip irrigation, and zero-tillage farming substantively reduce water needs and health risks involved in this process. In many cases, partial treatment of wastewater can be sufficient for agricultural reuse. City farming certainly has a positive impact on cleaning and greening of the city by turning open spaces into green zones with a favorable impact on the micro-climate free from pollution.

Employment generation:

Besides economic benefits to city farmers, city farming activities stimulate the development of related microenterprises, such as the production of necessary inputs like poly bags, earthen, cement and plastic pots and containers, fabrication of hand tools and implements, production of vermicompost manure, botanical and organic pesticides, bio-fertilizers and packaging materials and a network chain of transport and marketing. City farming generates an important strategy for poverty alleviation and employment generation, particularly for womenfolk who cannot leave home for earning their livelihood owing to various responsibilities, including raring of children and guarding the house.

Future of city farming:

The future of city farming in densely populated countries and fast     growing cities is no doubt very bright and promising to owe to the fact that 50 percent of the world’s population lives in cities, 800 million of whom are involved in city farming around the world contributing to feeding the urban residents. Low-income urban groups spend more than 60 percent of their income on food, and by the year 2015 about 26 cities in the world are expected to have a population of more than 10 million each. To feed a city like this size, we require at least 6,000 tons of food every day; out of this, a good proportion of food has to be imported from outside the city or at least 20 percent of it should be supplemented by growing food in city farming, using natural resources like organic waste, wastewater and wasted women power available in the cities.

Mushroom is an above-ground fruiting body of a fungus having a shaft and a cap. Mushrooms are used in the preparation of many kinds of flock medicine. These are also used in preparation of dyes for dying wool and natural fiber. The demand for mushrooms was increasing day by day for their properties like anticancer, antiviral and immunity enhancement. Mushrooms are a good source of proteins, vitamins, and carbohydrates. Used as the best supplement for meat in terms of proteins. Mushrooms are the low calorific food.

Mushrooms are good source of all minerals, contain high amounts of calcium. It also contains high amounts of sodium and potassium so, it can be useful for the patients suffering from hypertension.

Mushrooms are considered as a delight for the diabetics due to high protein, low calories, no sugar and starch. Hence, these are recommended for heart patients and diabetic patients.

It contains low amounts of fats but rich in essential amino acids like linoleic acid, palmitic acid, etc.

Mushrooms are rich source of fiber which helps in better digestion and prevents constipation, acidity problems.

Mushrooms also contain a good amount of moisture, almost 90 %.

We can also prepare various food items with mushrooms like mushroom biryani, mushroom soup, mushroom omelet, mushroom cutlet, mushroom curry, mushroom pickle, and mushroom mutter, etc.

Types of mushrooms:

There are around 50,000 mushroom species; among those, only 10,000 are edible ones. However, among all those only six types are recommended for commercial cultivation. Those are

• Paddy straw mushroom
• Oyster mushroom
• Button mushroom
• Milky mushroom
• Jews ear mushroom
• Shiitake mushroom

Now, we will discuss briefly how to grow mushrooms at our homes easily in this article.

How to grow mushrooms indoors

Required materials for mushroom cultivation at home:

We need very fewer materials which can be availed easily to grow mushrooms at our home.

• Mushroom spawns
• Straw
• Plastic bags

Spawn:

Spawn is nothing but a vegetative mycelial network of a mushroom developed after the germination of fungal spores. It contains mycelia along with supporting medium, which provides nutrition to the fungus for growth and development.

Precautions:

Purchase the good quality spawn of required type from reliable resources like mushroom growing points, training centers, etc.

Well, dried, fresh straw should be used for mushroom cultivation at homes. Don’t use wet, rotted straw. Avoid bringing straw from unhygienic places.

Select polythene bags of proper size, which relatively think enough to bear the weight of media in it. Don’t use polythene bags, which are very thin. Because they might prone to tearing problems, which totally damages cultivation.

Procedure:

Mostly oyster and white button mushrooms are suitable for cultivation at home.

Sterilization:

• In commercial cultivation, we will use machinery for sterilization as we are growing mushrooms at home; we can do sterilization of media by boiling on the stove in the kitchen.
• Collect the dried straw and shred the straw into small pieces and boil the shredded pieces of straw by adding water to it for 10 minutes.

Uses of sterilization:

• Boiling is very important in mushroom cultivation at home because it sterilizes the media from harmful microbes etc.
• It also softens the lignin and cellulose bonds present in the straw, which facilitates the easy growing of mushrooms and softening of straw to ensure better packing it in polythene bags.
• Stop boiling after 10 minutes. Avoid excessive boiling. Then squeeze the straws with the hands to remove the excess water.

Drying of the media:

• Then spread and place the straw in a place with good aeration for drying purposes.
• Keep it overnight.

Filling the media into a polythene bag:

• Place the straw in the polythene bags by pressing firmly with hands up to a layer of 2 inches and place a layer of spawn and place 2-inch layer of straw over the spawn.
• Repeat these layers of straw, spawn, and straw up to 8 -10 inches of height. Then there will be around 4 – 5 layers of spawn.
• Clean your hands properly before filling the media into the bags to avoid further contamination.

Packing:

After completion of this operation, we have to twist the mouth part of polyethylene bag and tie it with help of strings.

Note:

• Before closing the bag, remove the all air inside the polythene bag and do not make the straw very compact by pressing should be done gently.
• Then after closing, makes small holes with the help of a pen, etc. to the polythene bag from where mushrooms growths will come out. Around 7 – 10 holes will be enough.

Placing it in favorable conditions for the growth:

• Mostly mushrooms grow well in cool, dark and moist places.
• Place the bag in a dark place.
• Within seven days, the spores start sprouting; we can observe this by finding the whitish color growth inside the bag.

Relocate the mushrooms:

• After ten days, the germination of total spawn will occur.
• Then bring out the mushrooms for dark place and place it in a relatively lighter region of the house.
• Then make holes every 3 – 4 inches apart on the bag from which growth of mushrooms will come out.

Watering:

• Spray the water with the help of rose can or hand sprayer daily to the growing mushrooms.
• Avoid giving excessive watering. Maintain proper moisture inside the bag because mushroom growth and development are hindered by lack of moisture.
• After 25 days we can observe excellent growth of mushrooms coming out from the holes which can be harvested and immediately used in the kitchen.

Harvesting:

After 25 – 30 days, we can harvest the well-grown mushrooms by giving a small twist with hand at the base of mushrooms, or we can use a sharp knife to cut the base of mushrooms. We should ensure that there is no damage to the growing mushrooms during the process.

Storage:

Harvested mushrooms can be stored at refrigerated conditions for some days. However use these mushrooms as fast as possible. Because storing under refrigerated conditions for longer times is not advisable.

Conclusion:

As mushrooms are with a wide range of uses we can grow them at homes with little efforts and enjoy all the benefits of mushrooms by bringing down the expenses to purchase mushrooms at shops.

Lettuce is one of the essential salad crops in the world. It belongs to the family Asteraceae. Lettuce is temperate region crop. Lettuce is widely used in salads, preparation of soups and burgers, etc.

It is a rich in nutrients like the Vitamin-C, calcium, folate, potassium, etc. Consumption of lettuce daily is said to be healthy.

The consumption provides adequate amount of fiber to the body. One can grow lettuce with little care in indoors. In this article we look into how to go for indoor cultivation of lettuce.

How to Grow Lettuce Indoors

Selection of a variety:

There are different types of lettuce varieties available in the market, and many of them are suitable for indoor cultivation. However, it is preferable to select a loose head or butter-head type of varieties for indoor cultivation.

Selection of suitable place:

Pick a place where it will not receive high heat because high temperature will cause bitterness of lettuce leaves and high cold conditions shows adverse effect on lettuce growth.

An average temperature of 10 to 20°C is best for the cultivation of lettuce.

Prefer the places which receive abundant sunshine. If place with abundant supply of sunshine is not available, it better to grow under artificial light. Containers should be facilitated with proper drainage holes to ensure better drainage from the containers.

Selection of proper containers:

As lettuce is a shallow-rooted crop growing the plant in containers with shallow depth are preferable. Containers which are flat and have proper drainage holes are to be selected.

Prefer those containers which can be used multiple times to reduce cost of indoor cultivation. Place these containers in a place where they can receive proper light for photosynthesis.

Preparation of growing media:

Always preparation of growing media is essential which decides everything after sowing. We can use any sorts of fertile soils to grow lettuce in indoors. The growing media should be prepared in such a way that plant can avail all nutrient requirements from the growing media. For this, we can add vermin compost, farmyard manure, coco peat, garden soil, etc. This helps to enrich the nutrient status of growing media. Also the media should not become compact when they get wet; this will reduce the proper aeration. Avoid using media which has low fertility, is compact and contaminated with weed seeds, pest, diseases, etc.

Sowing and transplanting:

Sprinkle lettuce seeds and cover them with garden soil and give a gentle water spray to ensure proper germination. Transplanting should be done when they attain a proper stage. Transplanting should be done before they attain bony growth. Sprinkle the water lightly immediately after transplanting. Avoid overcrowding of seedlings in the containers which can result in increased competition for resources and further decrease the growth and development of plant. While transplanting care should be taken to avoid damage to the roots.

Soil Fertilization:

As we are growing lettuce in small scale in the indoors, soil fertility is not a problem. Moreover, need of chemical fertilizers is rare. It can be done with little application of vermicompost, farmyard manure, household wastes like fruit and vegetable scraps, waste food materials, etc. There is high-need of Nitrogen for lettuce. So, it is beneficial to provide nitrogen through liquid sprays.

NOTE: Avoid usage of non-degradable materials like plastic along with household waste materials as fertilizer.

Watering the plants:

Regular watering is indispensable in indoor cultivation of lettuce. Starving lettuce leaves without irrigating them will cause wilting of the leaves. Give light irrigation daily and provide irrigation whenever you find soil dry. However, avoid heavy irrigation which further may cause the rotting type of diseases.

Pest and diseases:

Mostly being indoors, there will be fewer incidences of pest and diseases. You may not come across with any pest and diseases if you are growing lettuce in proper conditions and suitable growing media. However, rarely we may encounter with the sucking pests like aphids, etc. and diseases like leaf spot. We can manage this pests and diseases with little care by collection and destruction of affected plant parts etc.

Harvesting of indoor lettuce:

Lettuce will be ready for harvest within four weeks after transplanting. Mostly prefer to harvest in the morning hours when leaves are turgid enough. Harvesting lettuce leaves indoors during sunny times is undoubtedly a bad practice. If we want to collect lettuce leaves for more extended periods we have to harvest or cut outside 3-4 leaves at once leaving the core undisturbed. Consume the leaves as fast as possible if refrigerating conditions are not available at home. If you have a refrigerator, it can be stored up to a week.

Conclusion:

By growing lettuce in indoors we can get a year-round supply of lettuce for our household requirements.We can also reduce the household expenses incurred towards vegetables. Moreover, the most advantage we can reap out from indoor cultivation of lettuce is we can get fresh and healthy lettuce without chemical residues.

Tomato is a significant vegetable crop around the world which is an indispensable item in our diet. Hence, there is a considerable demand for tomato in the market. So, to avoid market fluctuations we can grow tomato’s in our indoors. By cultivating tomato’s in the indoors we can get fresh tomatoes with minimum chemical or no chemical residues.

How to Grow Tomatoes Indoors

First and foremost thing in indoor tomato cultivation is to select a variety which is suitable for the indoor cultivation, all varieties do not grow well in the indoors. Select varieties with small fruits like cherry tomatoes. Varieties suitable for indoor cultivation are Siberia, Yellow pear, Small fry, etc. If we have a small place it is better to select determinate types, if we have sufficient place we can select indeterminate types.

Selection of place:

Selection of place for indoor cultivation is crucial for better growth and development of a plant. Basically, tomato is a warm-season vegetable crop; it requires warm climatic conditions. So, try to select a place which requires abundant sunshine, avoid shady areas. Because lack of sunshine to the plant will decrease the photosynthesis of plant.

Sowing& transplanting:

First of all, we have to sow the seeds in portrays. After 4-6 weeks after sowing we have to transplant the seedlings into proper containers or grow bags which are convenient to the place where we intended to grow. Select the Grow bags or container with proper drainage of water.

Soil:

Preparation of growing media is an essential aspect in indoor farming of tomatoes.Soil for growing tomatoes in indoors can be prepared by mixing farmyard manure, coco peat, garden soil in 1:1:1 ratio, we can add some sand to this to increase porosity of the media. Using of vermiculite will add extra benefit by retaining the water in it. We can also add some neem cake to the growing media to avoid various pest and disease damage to roots. Make sure that soil should be free from weed seeds.If we remain with only a shady place to grow tomatoes, we have to provide the light with the help of fluorescent bulbs, etc.

Mulching:

Covering the soil surface with any material is called mulching

Mulching can be done by the help of sawdust or with husk for better growth and development of plant by avoiding moisture loss and pest and disease contamination. It also reduces weed incidence by cutting light and increasing soil temperature.

Fertilizers:

As we are growing the plants in containers nutrient availability is limited. So, it is mandatory to supply nutrients. For this, we can use decomposed household wastage like vegetable and fruit scraps and food wastes or farmyard manure or chemical fertilizers like urea, single super phosphate, and MOP, etc. in required doses. Avoid usage of non-degradable materials like plastic etc.

Watering the plants:

Daily water the plants with the help of rose can. Don’t starve the plants without irrigating them. Over irrigating the plants will also cause damage to the plants.  Care should be taken to maintain proper drainage in the container to avoid water stagnation.It is better to check the moisture content of soil by touching with hand and providing irrigation if the soil was not wet enough. Loose the soil whenever you find it in hard or compact in nature.

Note: Don’t use hard water for irrigating the indoor plants of tomato.

Staking: This is a method of providing support for the growing plant.

An indeterminate type of verities staking is compulsory. Stake the plants with help of bamboo sticks and threads. Staking reduces the fungal infections and also increases the quality and yield of plant.

Pruning :

This is a method removal of excessive and unwanted growth. Prune the dried leaves, outgrown branches and plant parts with pest and disease attack immediately as soon as possible. Pruning increases proper aeration and also increase the size of fruit.

Pest and diseases:

In indoors aphids and mealybugs are the most affected pests  to control, chemicals sprays are not necessary because in indoors as plant population is very less and for increased health benefits.  We can avoid the infection by removing and destructing the affected plant parts. We can also spray organic insecticides which were prepared at house with help of garlic, curd, ghee, household waste, etc.

Harvesting:

Plants will be ready for harvest within 70-100 days after sowing depending upon the variety. It is better to practice staggered sowing so that we can get tomatoes year-round from our indoors for our daily consumption. Tomatoes can be picked at ripe stage for household consumption.

Conclusion:

As we saw above the indoor cultivation of tomatoes is very easy. By indoor cultivation of tomatoes we can get safe and fresh vegetables with minimum chemical residues. And also we can save lot of money when there are high prices for tomatoes in the market.