Social dynamics of urban agriculture (UA): a critical analysis

Abstract

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.