From window boxes and growbags to greenhouses and allotments, scientists are seeking help to measure the amount of own-grown fruit and vegetables across the UK in the first national estimate of the 21st century.
The MYHarvest survey, which will be the first since the famous Dig for Victory campaign during the Second World War, will assess the important contribution green-fingered fruit and vegetable growers make to national food security and also reveal how much allotment and garden space is needed in the future for the growing number of people living in cities and towns.
Anyone who grows their own produce is invited to take part in the innovative citizen science project led by the University of Sheffield to help determine the yield of typical UK staple fruit and vegetable crops.
The understanding of how much own-grown food is produced is poor which makes the research key to providing an evidence base to support the use of land for growing spaces within our towns and cities.
Dr Jill Edmondson, a soil scientist and ecologist from the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield, hopes the project will provide key insights into the ability of urban areas to contribute to UK food security.
“With over 80 per cent of the UK population living in cities or towns that are currently dependent on imported fruit and vegetables, it is important to understand how we can make our cities and towns more sustainable,” said Dr Edmondson.
MYHarvest is part of a wider research project that will study whether there are any barriers to using other urban greenspaces to increase the area of land used for own-grown food production. For example, some soils within greenspaces may contain high concentrations of pollutants such as heavy metals that could pose a risk to human health if used for food production.
Scientists will use the data gathered from people’s allotments, gardens and other spaces to produce estimates of the yields own-growers are able to achieve for typical UK fruit and vegetable crops.
source: grantham.sheffield.ac.uk