Start commune gardens in city

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 A response to a multitude of contemporary issues

Increasing density of population in the Colombo metropolitan region due to rural urban migration over the last few decades has resulted in the fragmentation of land and loss of open space in the region, particularly in and around Colombo.
Decreasing size of land plots leave little space around houses, and as a result, most families have no space for home gardening. The situation that has arisen is not dissimilar to what is found in most European cities where most families have been forced to live in apartments and the residents usually have no access to any land.
The lack of access to space for home gardening had been a major issue in many European, industrial cities in the initial stages of industrialisation.
Low wages and poor working conditions there had led to a great demand for gardening space and, in response many local authorities had made small plots of land available to needy families to grow some of the fruits and vegetables for their own consumption. Though working and living conditions improved steadily thereafter due to economic growth and social reforms, urban agricultural plots have not only survived but even flourished in many industrial countries as they serve a number of useful purposes not just for the families but also for the cities themselves.

"Unless the bogey of Tamil terrorism is spread, it is difficult to calm the rural masses who are the most hit by the development programme sanctioned by the IMF"

So, they are a common feature of the urban landscape even in most developed countries like the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Australia.
If such community garden plots are in great demand and are highly popular in such highly developed countries, there cannot be any doubt about their usefulness in the highly congested, Colombo metropolitan region where a majority of the inhabitants are not only poor but also have no access to garden space.
In European countries, it is usually the local government authorities or civil society organisations that had played a catalytic role in establishing and managing urban community gardens. These institutions had found sizable blocks of land and done the basic infrastructure work like drainage, access roads, street lighting and waste disposal before sub-dividing the land into small plots to be leased out to prospective families. Once a plot is allocated to a family, the family members had prepared the land for cultivation purposes, including the construction of a shed to store agricultural implements, seeds, etc, wooden benches for the family members to sit, etc.
Some of the common facilities are managed by the users together as members of a community organisation that has been set up for the purpose. Often the entire family comes to the garden plot over the weekend and adults and children alike engage in gardening work. For many, it is a family outing, particularly when the weather is pleasant.




Similar community garden plots, if established in the Colombo metropolitan region, could benefit thousands of families.
There are hundreds of acres of paddy land in the vicinity of Colombo that have been abandoned by their owners over the last several decades. If such land could be legally appropriated and made available for this purpose, an appropriate management system could be developed in order to develop, sub-divide and distribute small land allotments among the prospective new families.
 These families can become members of a cooperative that can be established to deal with common problems like dispute resolution, provision of agricultural extension, sharing of resources, maintenance of common amenities, adoption of good cultivation practices.
An urban community garden scheme compromising dozens of individual projects across the metropolitan area could have many potential benefits to participating families and others. They can be listed as follows.




a) A small family allotment could produce a significant part of vegetables and fruits, leading to a significant improvement of the nutritional status of family members, while reducing much talked about cost of living.


b) Those who participate in the programme could use organic and sustainable methods of farming, and avoid the use of toxic agro-chemicals. This could naturally help improve the quality of the natural environment.


c) Today, abandoned paddy land is an eye sore due to uncontrolled growth of useless weeds, providing shelter to poisonous snakes and rodents.
Needless to say well kept urban community gardens can improve the wider environment in many areas. Today, it is nobody’s business to manage abandoned land which continues to be a neglected resource.


d) Urban living is often dehumanising due to intense competition, social disorganisation and atomisation of community.


e) And, finally, the otherwise isolated family members could consider working on the family plot as a leisurely, weekend activity. This would be pleasurable, educative and economically productive. The contact with other families would naturally help cultivate social relationships beyond one’s neighborhoods.


What is listed above are some of the obvious benefits of an urban community garden initiative. There is no doubt that there are other more tangible and intangible benefits for the entire country, if the idea is taken up by a significant proportion of people living in congested urban areas. The initial steps to launch an urban community garden project could be taken by a State institution like a ministry or a statutory authority or by a group of concerned citizens. Either way, it could be established as a pilot project to test the viability of such an initiative. There will certainly be many issues that need to be resolved but it will certainly be worth the trouble to try out this idea. If urban community gardens are possible in some of the most developed countries in the world, I have no doubt about their usefulness in the densely populated urban areas in Sri Lanka.