Agro-activities in the Fringe of Asian Mega-Cities

Abstract

Urban fringe landscapes with a juxtaposition of segmented agricultural lands and urban land uses, seen to result from the incomplete application of Western urban planning concepts, have been regarded as a symbol of disordered Asian urban fringe areas. However, such a mixture of urban and agricultural land uses in the fringe is not a modern invention of Asian cities but may be identified in their history. Almost half of the land area of Edo, the former Tokyo, was in agricultural use, even up to the end of the Edo era. This was despite Edo being already one of the largest cities in the world with over one million populations. Various activities relating to agriculture can be found today in the fringe of Asian mega-cities including professional farming, poverty alleviation programs, community gardens and backyard gardening. These facts suggest that the order of land use in the fringe of Asian mega-cities should not be achieved by a simple application of Western urban planning concepts, but by an application of a fresh approach, which regards agro-activities as a vernacular element of the area. The integration of agro-activities in the urban fabric is one of the key issues for bringing a new order to the urban fringe landscapes of Asian mega-cities.