WHY DON'T WE GROW FRUITS AND VEGETABLES ON ROADS? - Drashti Panjrolia

WHY DON'T WE GROW FRUITS AND VEGETABLES ON ROADS?

According to World Health Organisation (2017) 821 million people or 1 in every 9 people are hungry. They do not get enough food because they cannot afford it. Poverty and malnutrition is a major problem in today's world. You might have noticed some trees on road sides. They are generally flowering or air purifying trees .Growing fruits and vegetables on roads may sound a very fantastic idea to reduce the problem of hunger. If we grow fruits and vegetables on roads then the poor can access it. It will increase food supply in the country. This will lead to fall in food prices. But is it so? 

REASONS WHY WE CAN'T GROW FRUITS AND VEGETABLES ON ROADS:

1. WILL THE GOVERNMENT SUPPORT?

 Fruits and vegetables requires a lot of maintenance, fertilizers, pesticides, etc. The input cost is a lot as compared to other air purifier plants. This will increase the government expenditure which is already at heights. Also many fruits fall down due to air or other natural factors. The roads need to be cleaned every now and then. This will also increase the chances of foul smell in the area if the mess is not cleaned soon. Will the authority clean roads every now and then? 

2. WILL THE NEEDY REALLY GET THE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES?

Even if the government supports us in this initiative ; will the needy really get the fruits and vegetables? Most of the fruits and Vegetables will be attacked by pests, birds, animals , etc. and the fruits will not reach the ultimate consumer. Also the fruit will be of low quality as it is grown on roadside. Most of people would try to steal the fruits and vegetables and sell it in the market. Is it really worth it?

3. CHANCES OF ACCIDENTS

Innocent animals and children would be attracted towards the fruits and the chances of accidents would increase. Growing fruits and vegetables on state and national highways is a risky task as the speeds of vehicles there is uncontrollable. Same goes for urban and sub-urban areas. 

4. WILL THE TREES EVEN GROW?

Vehicles produce a lot of pollution. The trees won't get fresh air to breathe. The pollution will hamper the growth of trees. The trees won't even get enough space to expand themselves. People will tend to remove them before they even grow and sell them off. The trees won't be able to bear fruits due to lack of maintainance. 

5. PROBLEM OF GATHERING FRUITS ON TIME

The fruits need to be gathered by the authorities or needy people on time. If they don't then the streets would be full with smashed decayed fruits. In a country full of issues , is it possible to manage such trees? Who will take the responsibility of gathering fruits on time? 

6. HOT ROADS

Most of fruit trees are not particularly large trees. That means you will never get the sheltering, canopy- like effect that you will get from other trees. This lack of shade will make roads even more hotter. 

7. EMPLOYMENT EXPENDITURE

Maintaining fruits and Vegetables is a labour-intensive work. A lot of man power is needed for maintaining, watering, fertilizing, plucking and gathering of fruits and vegetables. Even the cleaning of roads on time will become a necessity. This will lead to generation of EMPLOYMENT. And government has to increase its employment expenditure. This sounds a little bit impossible. 

8. LACK OF ETHICS

People will take advantage of this situation. The rich and middle class people will gather all the fruits and vegetables and earn profit from them. People can even create fight-scenes for not getting enough fruits and vegetables from road- side. This is all due to lack of ethics in our people. Seems realistic? 

9. HARM TO FARMER

Farmers works day and night under the scorching heat of sun to gather money. If we grow fruits and vegetables on roads. This will decrease the earnings of farmers. They are already suffering a lot and this will worsen their situation. 

10. WILL THE TREES SURVIVE?

Without  proper amount of sunlight, fruit-bearing trees are unable to photosynthesize, leading to small and poor-quality fruit. The cities are full of tall buildings. They will never let adequate sunlight reach the trees. Also the trees cannot survive in monsoons due to excessive watering and water logging on road side. 

SOLUTION:

Government can make orchards for poor people. This place can also be used as a picnic spot and government can earn revenue from them. Later they can distribute this fruits and vegetables to the needy people. Open access to everyone will lead to unethical acts by people. It should have paid access for picnic purposes and free distribution to the needy! Many more ideas can be brought into effect. If you have one such, drop the idea in the comment section. 

- Drashti Panjrolia

Note: The work is original and the author does not claim over images.