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Farming in the City
By Omar Tesdell
The sun was shining and I found myself among well-kept beds of beautiful red lettuce, green peppers, radishes, spinach and carrots. It seemed I had been lifted out of the frantic clamor of Lima to a land of green and quiet far, far away. In reality, I stood in a small vegetable plot at the edge of Lima in a place that serves as a taste of the further changes to come.
Even the casual observer knows that the district of Huachipa, like much of Lima and in fact Latin America, is urbanizing at an astounding pace. According to recent estimates, Latin America is the most urbanized region in the developing world and its cities will include 85 percent of the continent's poor by 2020. Worldwide, statistics tell a similar tale. By the same year, nearly half of the poor in Africa and Asia will be urban dwellers.
Huachipa is in the eastern cone of Lima, which makes up the part of the city in the Rimac River watershed. The area is known to most Limeños as a source of sunlight and recreational restaurants serving delectable Peruvian classics like barbequed cuy and pachamanca. The district, however, is part of the rapid urbanization trend across the metropolitan area as farmland is developed for housing, industry and recreation.
The pilot farm in Huachipa is part of a project called "Farmers in the City," an association of local small-scale farmers, which is organized by Urban Harvest, a research organization partnered with the International Potato Center. Urban Harvest researches ways that urban agriculture can contribute to families' nutritional and financial needs, and overall environmental health. It is part of the system-wide initiative on urban and peri-urban agriculture of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
Urban? Agriculture? Agriculture and urban are two words that at first glance seem contradictory, but many organizations and governments are realizing that urban agriculture can be a powerful tool to confront poverty in an urbanized world. Poverty, malnutrition and pollution are the ghosts that stalk those people who come to the city seeking a better life.
Sustainable urban agriculture can generate significant income for the producer and family and/or improve nutrition, as well as contribute to a healthier urban environment. Products from projects in other parts of the world range from chicken and trees to tomatoes and fish. Similar efforts are underway across Global South cities as diverse as Manila, Kampala and Havana.
The pilot farm in Huachipa (and similar associations in three other districts of the eastern cone) brings together producers of the area in supportive groups. The site acts as a test-plot for further research in farming methods and producer workshops, as well as a living example of the potential of agriculture in a city setting. Maintaining agriculture in urban or peri-urban areas like Huachipa preserves green space and can also be a learning experience for city kids who have never seen beets peeking out of the ground. The vegetables are grown with innovative methods, without chemical pesticides and using clean water.
Interdependence is the key word. The system works together as cuy and hens produce manure, which is mixed with organic plant waste and special worms for rich compost. The manure is also used to create a potent all-natural fertilizer. Part of the plot is dedicated to producing feed for the guinea pigs and laying hens. In the end, taking up only a very small space, the producer is left with many options, because they are able to sell or consume vegetables, cuy, compost, fertilizer, eggs or chicken.
Furthermore, a small water reservoir allows material found in polluted river water to settle to the bottom as sunlight kills bacteria at the surface. This leaves the water used for irrigation and washing considerably safer. The reservoir can also be home to fish to sell and/or eat.
Because many people in the eastern cone come from rural areas in the sierra, participating producers in our farmer field school combine their existing skills growing vegetables and raising animals with cutting-edge methods, and adapt them to an urban setting. Farmers in Huachipa contribute their time and energy to attend workshops and have now begun implementing some of the methods such as composting, integrated pest management techniques and organic agriculture on their own farms.
The hope is that the farmers could then take advantage of their proximity to major population centers like Lima and its niche markets for healthy food. Also, farmers intend to provide their products locally to restaurants, stores and neighbors and in turn strengthen the local food system.
These small farms not only have numerous financial, nutritional and environmental advantages for Lima's poor, but they also make for a welcome respite for this Midwesterner making the Peruvian capital his home.
Omar Tesdell is a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and a researcher at Urban Harvest, a partner of the International Potato Center.
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