Daegu School Garden & Urban Agriculture Program
Daegu, South Korea · Operator: Daegu Metropolitan City urban-agriculture administration
Overview
Daegu's urban-agriculture support program centred on school gardens. The city subsidises school gardens at 45 schools plus box, rooftop and balcony gardens and senior healing gardens, advancing food education and cross-generational citizen participation.
Citizen participation
Schoolchildren grow crops in school gardens for food education and hands-on farming. Beyond school gardens the city supports box, rooftop and balcony gardens and creates healing gardens for seniors at welfare centres, broadening citizen participation across generations.
Operating model
A public-support model in which Daegu Metropolitan City, as urban-agriculture policy, subsidises garden installation, materials and education for schools, residents and welfare facilities, providing information and applications via a dedicated urban-agriculture portal.
Impact
By spreading urban farming to schools, homes and welfare facilities, it has become a municipality-led model offering farming opportunities to a wide range of people, from children's food education to seniors' wellbeing.
Land tenure
School, welfare-facility and resident sites used as gardens under city subsidy and support.
Crops
- vegetables
Scale
City-wide support: school gardens at 45 schools (e.g. Myeongdeok and Namduk Elementary), plus box gardens at 25 sites, rooftop gardens at 19 sites, balcony gardens at 409 sites, and healing gardens for seniors at welfare centres
Sources(2)
This entry is compiled from the public sources, official sites and research below.
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