Urban Agriculture: a Key to Sustainability - Research Paper Example

Urban Agriculture: a Key to Sustainability Introduction The conditions that can be found in city life are such that many of those living in urban areas are never fully aware of the complex relationships between humans and Nature. Daily urban activities do not assist in helping others to gain an understanding of the extent to which those living in the city depend on the hidden, external agricultural system. There are very few who truly notice how important the urban-rural connection to their daily diet is, yet there are even fewer who realize that alternatives exist to the conventional model of urban food supply. Urban agriculture (UA) is starting to be viewed as one of many alternatives with massive potential, and not just as a contradiction in regards to terms. Today's cities continue to suffer from a broad range of problems that can be seen as underlying failures in our progressive-industrial society. UA can properly tend to some of these problems, and can begin working towards building a city that is socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable. Through this essay I discuss how to use the Cuban urban agriculture model to answer the social, economical and environmental needs in China and more specifically Pearl River Delta, I have chosen Cuban prototype both because of its success and socio-political similarities with China. 1. What is Urban Agriculture? Urban Agriculture (UA) is the exercise of cultivating, processing and doling out food within and around cities. The most remarkable feature of urban agriculture, which distinguishes it from rural agriculture, is that it is capable of being integrated into the urban economic, social and ecological systems. This includes the use of urban residents as workers, the use of common urban resources (such as solid organic urban wastes as compost and urban wastewater for irrigation), links with urban consumers, impacts on urban ecology, simply being a part of the urban food system, competing for land with other urban functions, and being influenced by urban policies and plans. Urban farming is by and large practiced for income-earning or food-producing activities, though in some communities the main impulsions are recreation and relaxation. In UA, we can produce crop, horticulture, animal and aquatic production or any combination of these. 1.2. Why Urban Agriculture? In this steadily growing urban world, seventy-five percent of the people in industrialized countries already live in towns and cities, far from anything urban; urbanization has become a global occurrence in the last fifty years. A massive movement of people from rural villages to cities the world over is considered to be the greatest human migration in history.1 Freeman (1991) makes note of four major motivations and roles for UA to attend to in the developing countries: to satisfy basic hunger; to supplement an excessively starchy diet; to supplement family income; and to reduce expenditures on food to allow other purchases. Despite these dietary and socioeconomic realities, central governments often do not support urban agriculture. Indeed, many ignore or actively discourage it. Compared to the agro-industrial complex, urban agriculture has a vast range of environmental, economic, and social advantages. 2 1.3 Spirit of urban agriculture; UA stands for the return to an older meaning of business, which involved mutual interdependence and support, in which trade became a system of distributing resources, and currency had no intrinsic value. In UA, people would share more than a plot of land. They would share seeds and produce, tools and skills, time and knowledge. Shared Backyards program is an example of such a system that successfully provides considerable economic benefits without the go-between of the free market and its many trappings. 2. What is a sustainable city? Sustainability is the ability to maintain balance of a certain process or state in any system. In an ecological perspective, sustainability can be defined as the capability of an ecosystem to uphold ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity.3 We can call a city sustainable, or eco-city when it is designed with consideration of any and all environmental and social impact, when it is dedicated to minimisation of required inputs of energy, water and food, and waste output of heat, air and water pollution. 4 Food production for cities – as well as in and near cities - is one of the many ways of decreasing the vulnerability of the world's urban populations to global ecological change. UA should become an element of urban land use and social planning for sustainable development mostly in the countries that are still developing. 3. China 3.1the most dynamic metropolitan regions; China has been the fastest-growing larger nation for the past twenty-five years with an average annual GDP growth rate above 10%. Pearl River Delta is the fastest growing region, which most of its development is considered as urban sprawl. The dissimilarity between urban and rural areas within PRD is quickly fading. Due to this situation, reliable food chains that continuously provide fresh products are becoming increasingly important. The recent economic increase is intimidating its ecological cycle. Enormous tracts of fertile land in the Delta have been lost to industrial development and concentrated housing, a trend that can, unfortunately, be seen elsewhere in the country. Dr Yeung warns that "this is something the Chinese will have to watch because once the land is converted (for residential use), it cannot be converted back to agriculture." 3.2 peri-Urban and Urban Agriculture in China; Combining farming and urban activities were common of Chinese cities. Communist regime, had a policy of supporting urban food self-sufficiency, for instance, by the early 1930s, Shanghai was capable of feeding its three million people with food produced within a 100-km radius. Presently, UA is threatened by China's open economic policy. Since 1978, residential and industrial development has quickly progressed, which encroaches on valuable fertile land. With more than one billion people, China's concern has been how to feed its population, particularly those who live in the cities and away from urban areas. Perishable vegetables, such as beans and cabbage, are grown in inner suburbs -- those areas are within 10 km of city centres. The majority of these vegetables are sold about 10 to 15 hours after they have been harvested. Hardier vegetables, such as carrots, radishes, onions, and potatoes, are produced in the outer suburbs. An increase of the use of household appliances, such as refrigerators, has increased the modernization of traditional farming practices, as well as the continuous growth of non-farming jobs in rural areas. These aspects have heavily influenced the scale of urban agriculture in China. 3.3 Techniques and Policies; The technological level of the bulk of UA enterprises in developing countries is low, but there is propensity towards more technically advanced and intensive agriculture. The Modern Agricultural Science Demonstration Park in Beijing is an advanced example of how a farm in the city can provide vegetation as well as aquaculture and livestock. 4. Measuring sustainability of U.A 4.1 Social elements; 4.1.1 People and nature; A chief socio-cultural outcome of urbanization is that people are spatially and psychologically distanced from the land and nature that surrounds and supports them. People who do not grasp this separation begin to care as much about their environment and surroundings as they do about their individual selves. People that live their lives with this level of awareness will begin to create a domino effect of change, which could modify our current path from one of ecological destruction to ecological sustainability. At the present time, one of urban society’s features is the tremendous separation of everyday life from the natural world on which human life constantly depends. 5 As a response to this separation, UA can give to the rebirth of civil society and the development of community as neighbours cooperate in the establishment, management, and supervision of community-owned or accessible garden plots and in the development of related activities.6 4.1.2 People and people Urban farming operates as an important method for social integration. For example, if Municipalities initiated projects that require disadvantaged groups, such as orphans, disabled people, women, recent immigrants without jobs, or elderly people, to integrate them more strongly into the urban society. Unfortunately, in the majority of cities, getting the required permission to build community gardens involves lobbying municipal governments to grant access to the land; once this access is acquired, urban farmers must constantly fight to keep possession of that land and those gardens. The ‘privatization’ of land cannot be too readily equated with the rise of ‘individualistic’ or ‘capitalistic’ purpose or attitudes.7 4.1.3 Cuba; Cuba is a 110,861 km2 area island with population of11,177,743, with educated, cultured urban population which was open to notion and poised for interaction with agricultural research networks. By the growth of UA, younger generations learned more about ecologies, Training programs and supports through courses and workshops increases knowledge such as agro-ecology, organic agriculture, permaculture and other related field as well as communication among all the actors in UA. It also gave positive stimulus to women, although they had free and complete access to all levels of education, but as they are more responsible for household duties and childcare, they did not develop any tradition of working in the fields, but now they can work in UA as it is more integrated with urban lifestyle. Urban farming had done a great transaction to stem rural migration to urban areas. The 1960’s proposal of creating Havana’s greenbelt also improved the farmer’s lifestyle, and increased the supply of food to the population of the capital. But UA in Havana is still considered a temporary activity. 4.1.4 China; 4.1.4.1Eco-Social tribulations and migration In 1960s, central government divided the citizens of china into two socio-economic titles according to their Hukou.(which is the system of residency permits)The first classification is the "hukou suozaidi" (the place of hukou registration), each citizen is obligatory to register one and only one place of regular residence. The local regular hukou registration defines an individual’s rights for social and economic activities in a specified location. The supply of necessary food and meats was based on the local hukou during the period when the most important daily necessities were rationed. Openings of numerous jobs are limited to local hukou holders. Following is the "hukou leibie" (the “status” or type of hukou registration), essentially referred to the "agricultural" and "non-agricultural" hukou. Along with the industrialization, urbanization and modernization of China, the economy is increasing at a rapid speed, and a large chunk of the population that are driven by market forces has relocated into urban areas and non-agricultural industries. On the other hand, while major economic, educational and cultural resources are concentrated in urban areas, migrant rural workers are barred from the benefits. At the same time companies are importing cheaper undocumented low-cost-labourers from other countries. These migrants excel low-skilled work. The combination of this immigration with Hukou system created huge eco-social barriers. Most migrant peasants are socially isolated because of their dialect, education, clothes, and eating habits. Since the urban or local hukou holders are more privileged in the case of Medical supports, safety and Job opportunities, there is always a great demand for it at almost any time, but the Conversion easily granted in the case of rural-urban migration. With population of 1,337,722,000 china is overpopulated which does not depend only on the size or density of the population, but on the ratio of population to available sustainable resources. 4.1.4.2Emergence of UA and the Chinese philosophy; Relations and harmony between people and nature is the central concept of the Chinese culture.8 Taoism regards the law of nature governing the universe and human society. It believes that harmony between nature and humanity is more important than good relations between people. Social justice is promoted by people whom fully enjoying their environmental rights. This paves the way for the realization of social justice in a harmonious society. Energy-saving and environmentally friendly technologies injects vitality into a harmonious society.9 As productive activity develops, so our relation to nature changes and the relation of subject and object evolve. This is a crucially important theme in Hegel that is taken over and developed by Marx.10 4.1.4.3 Agro-Tourism; A vital role of agriculture in China is “recreational agriculture”, also known as agro-tourism. In the 1990s traditional harvest festivals, such as the Watermelon Festival in Daxing, were organized and attracted numerous visitors. Local farmers had to extend their farming enterprises to add in more profitable recreational activities for future festivals. After 2002, with an increase of support from governments, more recreational opportunities were created, such as fishing, sightseeing, “pick your own fruits”, meal preparation and lodging facilities. By 2007, approximately 1,032 agro-tourism parks and 630 agro-tourism villages had been formed, of which 65 were high-level resorts. Overall, these parks and resorts were visited by over 26 million guests in 2007, and earned a total gross income of RMB 1.8 billion. The development of recreational agriculture in Beijing is promising since the income and leisure time of the urban population is growing as well as their interest in outdoor recreation and the environment.11 4.1.5 Emergence of the social impacts; The average of Chinese urban citizens compare to Cubans are less educated, in this case training programs for local governments and urban farmers is necessary, in order to improve the effectiveness of UA, and to distribute and share these experiences in the Region in order to improve and strengthen all efforts and lower the costs of these programs. UA helps to break down the artificially created barrier between humans and nature and builds a sense of community when people come together for a common intention in oases of natural beauty, openness, and feelings of safety, as well as forming consistent neighbourhoods of civil-minded people, which are essential in the development of sustainable cities. In china UA protects the rights of the rural and urban poor and it creates extra income for low skill migrants and farmers living inside or on the outskirts of the cities, it is a motivation to keep working in the agricultural sector rather than migrating to industrial jobs in the cities. In both Cuba and China, women make up an important aspect of urban farmers, since agriculture and related processing and selling activities, among others, are often more easily combined with their other jobs within the household. It is, unfortunately, more troublesome to combine it with urban jobs that require travelling to the town centre, industrial areas or to the homes of the wealthy.12 In my opinion Chinese UA labours should be specified, since the rural Hukuo holders and migrants have more difficulties working in industrial sections. But for the case of Cuban UA there is no need for specific division. Another proposal is to modify the number of people involved according in different seasons. Since the population density in Cuba is less than PRD. Additionally loci of accelerated UA growth, increased population mobility. UA sustain a wide variety of new industries and employment opportunities in PRD. 4.2Economical impacts; In industrial culture, short-term economic logic and the language of competence override other equally important values and considerations in both public and private life. Therefore some of the world's finest agricultural lands now earn higher economic returns as parking lots, shopping centres and factories flourish around the cities. Concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few multinational has largely affected agri-businesses. Since larger corporations have the advantage of economies of scale, they tend to undersell local farmers by a huge margin, which is unfair to the small growers. It drains the regional economy of its disposable currency.13 UA, on the other hand, includes agricultural production activities as well as related processing and marketing activities, and inputs and services delivery by specialised micro-enterprises or NGOs. In developing countries, UA is mostly for self-consumption, with surpluses being traded. The importance of the market-oriented urban agriculture, both in volume and economic value, should not be underestimated. Products are sold at the farm gate, by cart in the same or other neighbourhoods, in local shops, on local (farmers) markets or to intermediaries and supermarkets. Another vital aspect is that urban nutrient recycling programs lower both operating costs to farmers and food prices for the consumers. In recent times, interest for home-grown food raised since it saves household expenditures on food. People in poor countries generally spend a substantial part of their income (50 – 70%) on food. In addition, closer proximity to urban consumers can Increased- marketing opportunities. 4.2.1In Cuba; 4.2.1.1Cuba plugged into deep economic crisis; Agriculture in Cuba has played an important part in the economy for hundred years, it contributes less than 10 percent to the GDP, but it employs roughly one fifth of the working population. After the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989and The US Embargo Cuba lost its biggest export client (80%) and its biggest supplier of petrol and fertilizer. A massive shortage of petrol required to transport the food from the rural agriculture sector to the city, Cuba lost more than 75% of its imports and export capacity. This marked the start of serious food shortages that disrupted the whole country. Some predicted that Cuban’s UA would simply vanish with the food crisis. But just the opposite is what occurred. Cuban Ministry of Agriculture’s cure to this disruption was to support UA and urge citizens to use every bit of land they could to grow food. In 1990, a national alternative agricultural model (NAAM) had been created. They first secured land use rights for urban gardeners to provide land, free of charge, and for residents who wanted to grow food within the city. Food production was decentralised from massive mechanised state farms to urban cultivation systems. Havana’s residents responded en masse, planting food crops on porches, balconies, backyards and empty city lots. During this time, more than 50 per cent of Havana’s fresh produce is grown within the city limits. According to Willingness To Pay (WTP) section, a sample of users of popular gardens, was 34.4 MN/month/1,000m2, which grew with improvements in access to water and security from theft of produce and resources. To put this into proper context, these values represent 11% and 14% of total household monthly income. 14 Havana’s farms are increasing in size, number, and, most importantly, in quality. They have had an obvious impact on the food security of the city. Types of products depend on 1.family needs, 2.market availability and 3.suitability with the soil and locality. Today About 30 percent of the country's land is used for crop cultivation. 4.2.2 In China; 4.2.2.1 World’s financial crisis China, as the world's second largest economy has been greatly affected by the financial crisis. Faced with a severe deceleration of growth in the second semester of 2008, the Chinese government has enacted multiple fiscal and stimulus plans in order to stimulate growth and replace falling exports with domestic consumption. Since the beginning of 2009 government linked investment in China rose sharply and policy makers have given particular attention to the country's agricultural production capacity. Becoming independent for food production was emphasized by prime Minister Wen Jiabao's , He promised billions of dollars to boost farm yields, increasing agricultural spending by 20%, In that context the development of China's UA might soon become a priority for the government.15 4.2.2.2Food price; Since petrol is a major import in china, which is used for transportation and industry, I bereave locating the agriculture closer to the cities can cut the transportation cost down. The government has disheartened regional trade in food because of the high associated costs, such as refrigerated transport. These aspects help to reduce the gap in food prices between urban and rural areas. City-grown food is fairly inexpensive, which is especially important for the poor. According to Dr Yeung, "the nutrition of the urban poor depends on sufficient food being available at the marketplace at prices they can afford."16 4.2.2.3 Land price; In PRD, Urban sprawl increases the amenity value and then the price of farmlands furthermore increases the speed of conversion but if government insert a suitable model of UA, this might help to stop this ongoing process. Even in the cases when city farming is proven to be successful, its rate of growth follows that of the industrial sector. In prosperous Guangdong province, industrial output has increased by 160% over the last decade, compared with a 40% rise in agricultural productivity. Industrial growth can have positive influence on agriculture if local products are used as raw material for example if they preserve fruits and vegetables, or else produce useful material for agriculture, for example if it is a fertilizer or agricultural machines. 4.2.2.4 Income This rapid urban growth increased disparity between urban and rural incomes for example in Beijing (now 3:1) 4.2.3 Brief evaluation of the economical aspects; In UA, production and marketing are usually more closely interrelated in terms of time and space than for rural agriculture, due to the larger geographic proximity and quicker resource flow.17 Furthermore, it integrates well into the new community development models, which are being investigated as alternatives to urban sprawl and decay. 4.3 Environmental elements; What people have begun to appreciate over the last 20 or 30 years is that the environment is like a bathtub, of limited capacity. When humans were launched into space in the 1960’s they and then we were for the first time able to view the planet earth as a blue globe, utterly bounded in extent. The limits of the environment became immediately clear.18 UA engages with the environment and the ability to modifies city’s metabolism, by closing the open loop system and helps to decrease pollution. Locally produced foods require less packaging and refrigeration and Closer access make it possible to close the nutrient cycles. Domestic organic waste can be treated, composted, or processed into soil conditioner and fertilizer and returned to nearby garden and farmland, which reduces organic and nutrients wasted in landfills or contributing to ground and surface water pollution near cities. Also the use of organic fertilizers reduces the fossil fuel consumption associated with manufacturing and distributing artificial fertilizers, conserving energy, lowering CO2. Also City gardens block the transmission of urban noise. most of the international and intra-national transportations are food-related. In the industrial world a typical mouthful of food travels 2000 km from farmgate to consumer. Thus, local food production for local consumption has considerable potential to reduce the need for transportation and thus the rate of atmospheric CO2 accumulation and today’s extreme climate, which have major impacts on ecosystems. 4.3.1 The world's changing demographics An ecological crisis occurs when the environment of a species or population changes in a way that can destabilize its continuous survival. By the end of this century, there will be more people living in cities than in rural areas. The amount of land devoted to urban farming will decrease, just as the need for food in cities becomes more prominent. 4.3.2 Enhancing biodiversity; UA allows the constant production of rare varieties of fruits and vegetables that may be adapted to local conditions but which are being displaced by the ever-growing uniform production technologies of trade-oriented commercial agriculture and the exigencies of international marketing. Domestic gardeners usually grow a wider variety of fruits and vegetables than large-scale commercial growers, as well as diversity of near and intra-urban crops and croplands will attract a larger variety of bird and animal life than the same lands in more "normal" urban use. 4.3.4 In Cuba; 4.3.4.1City of Havana; Contemporary Havana is described as three cities in one: 1.Old Havana, with narrow streets, which has become part of a projected 35-year multimillion-dollar restoration project in the 1980’s. The government wanted to encourage in Cubans an appreciation of their past and also to make Havana more enticing in the same sense. 2. Newer section, known as Vedado, has become the rival of Old Havana for business activity and nightlife 3. The more affluent residential and industrial districts that spread out mostly to the west are from the 1920s. A small set of the suburban exclusivity was lost after the revolution, many of the suburban homes having been nationalized by the Cuban government to serve as schools, hospitals, and government offices. 4.3.4.2 Evolution of UA in the City of Havana Havana's UA has taken on various forms, ranging from private gardens to state-owned research gardens, with Havana’s popular gardens being the most widespread. In 1995, it was estimated that there were 26,600 popular garden parcels throughout the 43 urban locations. The popular gardens range in size from a few square meters to three hectares. Shared use of the popular gardens range from one to seventy people per garden site. The sites are often vacant or abandoned plots, mainly due to collapsed houses located in the same neighbourhood, if not next door to the gardeners' household. Gardens are often formulated on concrete ground. The relationship of UA activities and urban environment has only recently been studied. Many of the empty lots, which earlier were informal garbage dumps, are now beautiful gardens that provide food to local communities and improve neighbourhood aesthetics and health.19 They are applying traditional and alternative technologies to food production and forging ahead towards their ultimate goal of total sustainability. Gardeners use organic fertilizers in the form of chicken or cow manure, compost from household food waste and occasionally vermiculture. Farmers maximize the use of land by cultivating multilayer crops, crops in the ground, on the ground and above the ground at the same time. A popular combination includes cassava (providing shade), sweet potatoes (providing good ground cover) and beans (fixating the soil with nitrogen). 4.3.4.3 Ecological food production; Cuba is now one of the world leaders in bio fertilisers, with an impressive production of organic food. The survey showed over 70 percent of the cities studied, more than half of the urban agricultural land was irrigated with wastewater. This has both helping and hurting great numbers of urban consumers.20 4.3.5 In china; Severe drought in northern China earlier this year has put further pressure on the government to invest in improved farming technologies. Wen Jiabao's(Prime minister)warnings that climate change sparks future food crisis. Rapid loss of farmland, PRD faces a shortage of arable land and a shortage of water, as a reaction the municipal government is promoting the development of multi-functional recreational agriculture in the peri- urban zones.Here the biggest threat to agriculture is industrial development. As the numbers of factories increase, so does pollution, water and air pollution are now the major environmental problems in the PRD region, where the leaves of the mulberry trees show traces of having been contaminated. The silk worms began dying after eating the leaves, which caused silk production to drop. Farmers are turning to other, more pollution-resistant crops, such as sugar cane and bamboo. 4.3.5.1 Food security; The lack of refrigerators in Chinese households means there is a constant need for daily supplies of fresh food. A growing city will produce more wastewater and solid, in china the disposal of wastes has become a serious problem. One of the most significant links between UA and environmental and public health is waste management. An uplifting example is Guangzhou, where a single field can produce up to nine crops a year. Such concentrated use means that soil fertility must be continually renewed. It is done through the recycling of waste, a traditional Chinese practice. Recycled human waste, in particular, has long been used in UA. The waste is collected from households and taken to a cesspool. Once it is rid of pathogens, it is applied to the fields. Unfortunately this practice is becoming less common with the growing popularity of chemical fertilizers. Another example of organic waste recycling is in Guangdong, which supports an integrated system of agriculture and aquaculture, known as the mulberry-dyke fishpond system. Briefly, mulberry trees are grown to feed silkworms and the silkworm waste is fed to the fish in the ponds. The fish also feed on waste from other animals, such as pigs, poultry, and buffalo. The animals in turn are given crops that have been fertilized by mud from the ponds. Also Hong Kong improved livestock farming using massive amounts of urban food wastes. Irrigating farms with untreated wastewater because of the lack access to other sources of water or its price may lead to health and environmental problems. UA increases the amount of food available to people living in cities, and, allows fresh vegetables and fruits and meat products to be made available to urban consumers, it adequate, affordable and accessible supply of food. 4.3.5.2A flash of life and colour in the concrete jungle; UA also impact upon the greening and cleaning of the city by turning derelict open spaces into green zones and maintaining buffer and reserve zones free of housing, with positive impacts on the micro-climate (shade, temperature, sequestration of CO2). It links cities and their environment, and can be an increasingly acceptable, affordable and effective tool for sustainable urbanization. The production of trees, shrubs, flowers and ornamental plants and food crops can beautify the city, cool its climate, curb erosion and absorb air pollution and odours.21 4.3.5.3China is Moving towards UA; To keep farming inside or near the urban fabric, a new spatial organization is required. At the moment most urban farming takes place in the cities' "inner" and "outer" suburbs. Chinese Government has extended municipal boundaries to encompass agricultural land. Shenzhen has no rural areas and no farmers. But the city continues to develop modern UA. During the five-year program, the city plans to invest 8.82 billion yuan in 39 key agricultural projects in six major categories, including a safe agricultural products base, an agricultural high-tech park, agricultural processing and distribution, forestry, eco- agricultural tourism, which will form an UA with typical Shenzhen characteristics.22 4.3.5.4 A component for Sustainable urbanization; UA should insert into Land Management System. It can be planned as a separate land-use or one that can be combined with other land-uses, either on a temporary or permanent basis. The diversity of production systems and the degree to which UA can be practised makes it compatible with a wide range of urban activities, meshing with the urban fabric at different scales (lot, city block, ward, district, zone, in urban and peri-urban areas). Dynamic planning must also provide for UA land-uses to evolve as the city expands and transforms itself. Capital intensive forms of UA requiring relatively small areas of land can thrive in city cores, while more land-intensive and waste-generating forms should relocate to less central and less populated locations. 23 Conclusion; Urban agriculture offers a number of environmental, economical and social benefits at no or low cost to cities. Indeed, as shown in the development of this essay, it can become a solution to many of our urban problems. Simple acts of farming can enhance the physical and spiritual health of individuals; it can create connections between people and the environment, as well as among people. While Chinese rapid industrialization cause a huge number of migration such as rural-urban or from different regions, UA should insert into urban lifestyle to help urban poor to provide a cheap source of nutritious food. Cuba for example represents how small urban farms can provide significant portions of urban food supply despite extreme financial crisis, plus it creates employment.24 Urban farming is part of the urban ecological system and can play an important role in the urban environmental management system, in the highly polluted region of PRD it helps preserving biodiversity, trickling waste, decreasing Pollution and improve recycling, Ecosystems & Environment. It also reduces the energy uses through the efficient management of urban wastes and because of the closer proximity of food production and food consumption areas. It should be seen as an integral part of the urban system to improve the city metabolism. The particular form of UA depends on the natural resource base in and around the city’s, governors should choose who can use open land and on what terms. Since both china and Cuba are communist countries people have no right to own the land, in this case government plays a crucial role in the development of UA and should put free of charge lands for the urban poor usage. Reasons for the lack of support for U.A in China is that it is seen as producing less financial return from land, which could otherwise be commercially developed. Read More