Strategies for building sustainable urban communities through horticultural activities

Abstract

Present paper proposes a series of strategies as solutions that could increase food production while greatly reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture. From all agriculture activities, horticulture sector is characterized by a high biodiversity and is dominated by fruit and vegetable growing species. Urban horticulture brings together what used to be widely separated: food production and urban space. Broadly speaking, urban horticulture includes everything from small home gardens, community lots to the management of city parks, rooftop gardens, as well as the vertical way of production. This direction of production ensures increased availability of fresh products in big communities, raw material for processing, healthy diets, improved food safety, lower costs for transport, better use of resources, and mitigation on environmental impact of agricultural activities by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases.