Home gardening practice in Pune (India), the role of communities, urban environment and the contribution to urban sustainability

Urban agriculture (UA) is regarded as an emerging tool and strategy for sustainable urban development as it addresses a wide array of environmental, economic and social objectives. Home gardening represents a common form of UA in the close living environments of urban dwellers that can be particularly important for rapidly growing cities and metropolitan regions in developing and transitional countries. However, a structured conceptual analysis of different urban sustainability benefits, including its operationalisation, is lacking. We therefore investigated whether and to which extent home gardening practices in urban residential environments contribute to urban sustainability. In detail, we analysed the contribution of prevailing cultivation practices, socio-economic situations, motivation, knowledge and networking of individual household and external framework conditions to the environmental, economic and socio-cultural dimensions of urban sustainability. Between January and May 2014, we conducted a questionnaire survey among 111 gardeners in residential neighbourhoods of Pune (India) and applied an analytical framework using composite indicators with index values to the compiled data. Our main results showed that sustainability benefits can be expected especially in environmental and socio-cultural aspects, particularly for urban biodiversity conservation and aesthetic green urban spaces, and less expected in economic contributions and food production. Gardening practice and sustainability contribution is rather determined by the motivation and socio-demographic factors of the gardener than type and size of the garden. We conclude that conserving and building home gardens can contribute to urban sustainability and should therefore be considered in the planning, design and management of urban spaces.