Oleg Moldakov

In: UA Magazine 9 - Financing Urban Agriculture

Annually, up to 2.5 million city inhabitants are involved in agricultural activities in St. Petersburg. The main reasons to practise gardening and farming in the city are self-sufficiency. City gardeners never obtain credit or loans. They borrow small sums of money from friends or relatives. The small-scale periurban farmers have a stronger interest in obtaining credit in order to finance agricultural activities. Several sources for micro-credit are given in this article. It is concluded that urban gardening is an important factor of political stability in society, and that thus there is a need for government subsidies.