New Stories From 'Urban Agriculture Notes'
Random header image... Refresh for more!

Montenegro: Urban Farming Takes Root in COVID-Hit Montenegro

Stasa’s parents Jovana and Dejan decided to plant a vegetable garden and the seven-year-old likes to help. Photo: Courtesy of Plantadjun.

Small-scale urban agriculture projects are blossoming in the pandemic – and could even reduce Montenegro’s high dependency on imported food, experts say.

By Darko Pekic
Balkan Insight
November 20, 2020
(Must see. Mike)

Excerpt:

Concerns over security, and the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, have prompted a revival of small-scale urban agriculture in Montenegro.

Whether it is because of job losses, or just a way to escape the dull reality of quarantine measures – or both – the outbreak of the coronavirus has resulted in many citizens starting to cultivate gardens, parks and any other available land.

“Social gardens in urban areas are potentially very important for our citizens, especially in these times of the further impoverishment of the population,” Cazim Alkovic, the city administrator of Montenegro’s main port of Bar, told BIRN.

“We have a large consumption of food in urban areas that someone has to produce. If the citizens of Bar recognize the economic crisis as an opportunity to produce at least herbs in their gardens or on the roofs of their buildings, the effects will be visible in the long run,” he adds.

Since the start of the pandemic this spring, new urban farmers in Bar and other towns have either launched or joined existing civic initiatives that promote urban gardening and cultivating healthy organic food.

Read the complete article here.