A recent article, ‘Feeding a city – Leicester as a case study of the importance of allotments for horticultural production in the UK’, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, provides a fascinating insight into the importance of allotments in providing food for urban populations.
Highlights
Urban agriculture provides important ecosystem services to people living in cities.
Allotment gardening in 1.5% land within a city provides fresh produce for 3% of population.
Crop yields achieved by own-growers were similar to commercial crop yields.
Availability of land for own-growing has significantly declined since the 1950s.
Urban food security could be increased by providing more allotment land.
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