Urban Farming: A Review on Techniques Used in Urban Farming in Mayan Civilizations

Abstract

Urban farming (UF) is emerging in the urban areas of the modern world due to food scarcity in urban areas. Urban agriculture is enjoying a resurgence in popularity that began decades ago. It's now widely acknowledged and accepted as a means of gaining several environmental, economic, and social advantages. However, the cradle of urban farming is from our ancestral civilization. Hence, documenting different urban farming techniques used by our ancestors is very important. Consequently, this study is launched to study how our ancestors used urban farming to feed their ever-growing urban population. To structure the database, the UF-related words and keywords are divided into five categories. After that, using different keyword combinations for both ‘history’ and UF the online databases Scopus, ScienceDirect and ISI Web of Science (WoS) were searched. The samples presented here demonstrate the diversity of landscapes found in the Mayan Civilizations. Spatial variances in the underlying environment, various environmental changes, and civilizations' adaptability across time all contributed to this heterogeneity. Whether this civilization chose to focus on agriculture in wetlands or dry uplands, how they dealt with the annual problem of the dry season and water availability, and how diverse and nutritious soils were across the broader landscape all showcase the adaptive strategies used by the civilization to suit the different environmental conditions. Techniques like Raised bed farming in Mayan Civilization, are great examples of their adaptability to the climatic changes using creative solutions. All these civilizations flourished for centuries before their collapse. As a framework for addressing community cohesiveness and food access, Urban farming is entering a new phase. Urban agriculture has the potential to help people adapt to climate change. Mitigation and adaptation will be aided by avoiding reliance on fragile transportation connections, experimenting with seasonality and crop selection, and developing community bonds. When new challenges develop, urban agriculture will be there to meet them, and it will continue to evolve as it reacts to key issues that shape our cities. And to aid this process a comprehensive look at the ancient world’s agro-urban civilizations would be very beneficial.