MSc

The study entitled “Social Dynamics of urban agriculture (UA): A critical
analysis’’ was conducted during the year 2021-2022. The main objective of the study
was to find the subjective well-being (SWB) formed among urban farmers, the
motivational patterns of people involved in UA, nature and spatial typology of UA,
delineating existing models of marketing and urban farmers perception regarding the
marketing models. The research design used for the study was ex post facto design.
Locale of study was Thiruvanthapuram, Kollam and Kochi Corporation, most
urbanized areas in southern Kerala. Thirty farmers who were actively involved in
urban agriculture practices were purposively selected from each corporation
constituting a sample of ninety farmers. Ten officials were also purposively selected
from three districts for data collection, thus comprising a total sample size of 120.
SWB of urban farmers was the dependent variable of the study and was
measured by developing Subjective well-being index using life satisfaction, positive
affect and negative affect. Motivational patterns were measured using methodology
followed by Othman et al.(2019). Twelve independent variables also studied. The
statistical tools used for the study includes frequency, standard deviation, percentage
analysis, correlation, chi-square analysis, Kruskal-wallis test, Principal component
analysis, anova and t-Test.
Regarding nature and spatial typology the main type of urban agriculture
practice was rooftops farming in grow bags and container (43.33 %). The main
combination of crops cultivated was of solanaceous, legume, crucifers and leafy
vegetables combination was cultivated by 20 per cent of farmers.
The result indicated that majority of the urban farmers (46.67 %) have medium
level of subjective well-being and 27.78 per cent of respondents have high level of
SWB, only 25.56 per cent farmers belonged to low SWB category. Kruskal-wallis test
was used to compare the difference among subjective well-being formed among
different corporations and farmers practicing different typologies of UA. The result
revealed that there was not much significance difference between SWB formed among
urban farmers of different categories. Urban farming experience, annual income,
health consciousness, scientific orientation, environmental orientation, innovativeness
and social capital had significantly positive relation with subjective well-being.
PCA results indicated that main motivational factor influencing farmers for
practicing urban agriculture was physical and health factor. Age of urban farmers had
a significant relationship with social factor, health and environmental factors of
motivational pattern. Income of urban farmers didn’t have any significant relationship
with their motivational patterns.The gender of the farmers had significant relationship
with environmental and economic factors.
The most common model of marketing among urban farmers was combination
of direct and indirect marketing (42.25 %) followed by direct (39.44 %). Regarding
the farmers perception about marketing models, 94.45 per cent urban farmers were
aware about marketing models while only 61.11 per cent urban farmers were willing
to sell their extra produce through the channels. Most of the farmers (54.44 %) didn’t
face any difficulty in selling their produce and only 47.78 per cent urban farmers were
aware of strategies for marketing produce. The main constraint in selling produce by
farmers were, the quantity of produced were less to make it marketable, the high level
of competition from other conventional farmers and not getting remunerative prices
for their produce.
To conclude majority of urban farmers had medium level of subjective wellbeing (46.67 %). The main motivating factors encouraging urban people to practice
the UA were health, environmental and social factor. Most of the farmers are engaged
in UA for producing vegetables and fruits for their own consumption, only the extra
produce are marketed. The market access is not a problem for the respondents. The
issue of low supply of produce can be solved through group farming and marketing
and fair price can be ensured by selling commodities through direct marketing. The
main problem in enhancing food production through UA is the limited land
availability. Therefore, it is recommended that through the use of new technologies
and conversion of fallow land to cultivable land UA can be scaled up.