Will Leschen, David Little, Stuart Bunting and René van Veenhuizen

In: UA Magazine No. 14 - Urban Aquatic Production

The cultivation of fish and aquatic plants/vegetables¹ is widespread throughout many cities in South East Asia and to a lesser extent in Africa and Latin America. Aquatic production is intrinsically linked with the livelihoods of a significant number of the lower income urban households. There is a wide array of activities, from extensive to intensive cultivation of both fish and aquatic vegetables. However, the production systems involved are generally semi-intensive often utilising wastewater from the city as a source of nutrients and fertiliser for increasing production.

This UA Magazine has been funded by PAPUSSA.

Madhumita Mukherjee, Rajarshi Banerjee, Arindam Datta, Soma Sen and Basundhara Chatterjee

In: UA Magazine No. 12 - Gender and Urban Agriculture

East Kolkata Wetland has been recognised as a highly productive, remunerative and employment-generating eco-system. The eco-system cleans the city environment and acts as a catalytic agent to change the city's waste into protein-rich Aqua Zone, which is also a major supplier of vegetable, fruit and horticultural products. Bengal women actively participate in a number of income-generating activities for their families. The project reported on here, was undertaken to develop an understanding of trends in fishery development and their implications for the periurban fishing community of Kolkata. A second objective was to investigate the women's role in fisheries and in the fishing community, in order to develop a correct strategy to strengthen women's meaningful participation. The study was done in three different periurban systems.

Madhumita Mukherjee

In: UA Magazine 10 - Appropriate (Micro) Technologies for Urban Agriculture

In India, night soil and wastewater reuse in agriculture is a traditional practice followed in irrigation for centuries. West Bengal is the pioneering state. The use of municipal wastewater to fertilize ponds is now perhaps the largest wastewater fed aquaculture system in the world in Kolkata, and the periurban area, especially where wastewater fish farming is practiced, supports the livelihood of a large number of people through waste recycling and natural resource use.

Frank McNeely

In: UA Magazine 10 - Appropriate (Micro) Technologies for Urban Agriculture

Aqua-Terra Gardens is a corporation located in the heart of the United States where Frank McNeely, owner and operator, has converted an unused old graining mill near the downtown area and into to an urban agriplex. The goal was to establish a facility that would address sustainable agriculture, use renewable energy and educate the public to these concepts.

Jovita Abensur Ríos and Horacio Chicata Blancas

In: UA Magazine 10 - Appropriate (Micro) Technologies for Urban Agriculture

Hydroponics is a technology characterized by the absence of soil, allowing the growing of crops of better quality in small urban spaces, requiring less time, less labour, and less inputs. In Lima, Peru, the NGO Imagen Educativa began working in 1993 to promote urban agriculture as a strategy to improve nutrition, family income and environment quality. It implies the growth of legumes, ornamental, aromatic and medicinal plants in the peripheral areas of Lima, where it is difficult to farms due to poor soil conditions and lack of water for irrigation.

César H. Marulanda Tabares

In: UA Magazine 10 - Appropriate (Micro) Technologies for Urban Agriculture

Since the mid 80s, the UNDP -soon followed by FAO- began fostering the development and use of Household Hydroponics. This mainly urban agricultural technique is a fast and efficient alternative to address the lack of food and the lack of income of many impoverished households. In household hydroponics, the key is not to increase the yield per hectare, but to produce small amounts of food in many houses, in spaces unsuitable for conventional agriculture.