The project analysed the yields of 34 ‘citizen scientists’ growing fruit and vegetables on allotments, balconies and gardens. Photograph: Nick David/Getty Images Farming City allotments could be as productive as conventional farms, research finds Two-year pilot study in Brighton and Hove shows value of urban food production, say scientists

A two-year pilot study by the University of Sussex found that volunteer urban growers in Brighton and Hove were able to harvest 1kg of insect-pollinated fruit and vegetables per sq metre in a season – which researchers said put their yields within the range of conventional farms.

The project, which analysed the yields of 34 “citizen scientists” growing fruit and vegetables on their allotments, gardens and balconies, found that despite limited pesticide use they were each able to grow an average of £550 worth of produce between March and October.

Across the two-year period, volunteers recorded more than 2,000 pollinating insects among their crops. The most common were bees, which accounted for 43% of all flower visits.

Dr Beth Nicholls, who led the study, which is as yet unpublished and yet to be peer-reviewed, is due to present her findings at Ecology Across Borders conference on Wednesday.

She said: “The growing was surprisingly productive. And some people were harvesting a lot more than that – up to 10kg per sq metre. And this is just in insect-pollinated crops, so it’s an underestimation really.”

Participants were provided with calculators which told them how much it would cost them to buy the food they were growing at the supermarket and how dependent their yield was on insect pollination.

Nicholls, who is a pollination ecologist, said the growers used less pesticides than conventional farming techniques – they were used in under 10% of pest cases – and that the most common pests were slugs, snails and aphids. The worst-affected produce was soft fruit and beans.

She said the study demonstrated the value of urban food production and how it could be used to reduce food deserts by growing food “closer to where people are” while also reducing food miles and transportation costs.

There are 10,435 allotments in the UK, spanning 7,920 hectares, according to 2019 figures from the Office for National Statistics. A recent survey by the Association for Public Service Excellence, due to be published next week, found that 37% of councils report more than 1,000 people on waiting lists for allotments and over a third of councils are looking to increase their allotment provision amid a huge rise in demand during the coronavirus pandemic.

Following fears over food insecurity after Brexit, Nicholls said more could be done in the UK to use urban spaces to produce food and incorporate shared plots into new housing developments.

“The UK imports approximately £8bn of fruit and vegetables each year, but our results show that green spaces in cities, such as allotments and community gardens, could play an important role in meeting that demand at a local scale.”

“In a world of increasing urbanisation in both the developing and developed worlds, producing food in and around cities has the potential to improve both nutritional and health outcomes, alleviate poverty and simultaneously provide habitat for wildlife and create sustainable cities.”

Source: The Guardian

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