A few years ago, when Jhangiani started converting barren public spaces to community gardens—like the one she created in her building complex three years ago—she mostly heard people calling it a “silly gardening hobby.” “Right now though, I have to say, it’s very gratifying to see that people are talking about growing your own food and managing your own waste. There are elderly people who come to take bitter gourd from the farm, which is excellent for purifying blood,” she tells VICE. “The real interest in urban farming will only show once the lockdown is over. It will show if people really mean to change. But it’s good to have started this conversation, finally.”

A few days ago, under the ongoing lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus in India, Diipti Jhangiani—a resident of Bandra in Mumbai, India—was walking through a 50-square-meter [538-square-feet] patch of land inside her building complex. In it were robust hedges of tomatoes, carrots, okra, spinach, papayas, chikoos, drumsticks, bitter gourd, and other vegetables. She dug up some fresh turmeric to take back home. “During a crisis like [this pandemic], there will always be a shortage of food for those who can’t afford it,” says the 34-year-old urban farmer and the founder of an agricultural startup called Edible Gardens . “And even for those who can, there are some shortages. We’ve run out of haldi (turmeric) in the stores nearby. But I’ve been growing haldi in my community farm in my society, so we’re using that instead. And it’s so much fresher.”

In fact, developing countries are currently at risk of facing famine as well as food riots. Dominique Burgeon, the director of emergencies at the FAO, even warned that the rich should not see food shortages arising from the pandemic as a problem for only the disenfranchised. “If food shortages begin to bite, the impacts will reverberate across the globe,” he said. In fact, in agrarian and rural pockets of the world, farmers are facing huge losses since the lockdowns forced them out of their farmlands , and shortage of labour drove up costs as well as fall in demand.

The perception of food shortage and fears of inflated prices , along with disruptions in food supply chains subsequently point to the fact that there is a high possibility that we’re on the verge of, or are heading steadily toward a breakdown. This trend even led global agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) to predict massive food shortages across the globe. “Uncertainty about food availability can spark a wave of export restrictions, creating a shortage on the global market,” said a joint statement by UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), WHO and World Trade Organization.

In India, where the lockdown is currently seeing a huge displacement of migrant workers—who make up 37 percent of the country’s population, and depend on daily wages for survival—food shortages are predicted to cause violence and unrest. “This is something new and very difficult to predict,” Abdolreza Abbasian, a senior economist at FAO, said. “It is that uncertainty that right now is the biggest danger.”

And it’s at an uncertain time like this when the concept of grow-your-own-food is increasingly gaining traction. Jhangiani, who has been growing her own food in the form of community farms, is one of the many advocates of self-sufficiency. In fact, the pandemic has barely made much difference to the way she lives. “My own process started with processing our own waste, and from that we started growing our own food. In urban spaces, there is so much potential to have these farms on literally every street or garden out there,” she says. “And you don’t even need acres and acres of land for this. I’m currently growing chikoo and mulberries in containers! You don’t need a lot of space, you just need the right technique.” Kitchen gardens, which are perfect for the ridiculously tiny apartments that dot most big cities, are seeing a boost as well.

At the moment, the internet is full of DIY kits to help people grow their own pantry literally anywhere. “Look around you and find the spaces that could be filled with food: lawns, verges, community gardens, the end of the cul-de-sac; and if you live in an apartment, a shared communal area—they all work,” writes Palisa Anderson, an Australian restaurateur and farmer. Adds Los Angeles Times writer Jeanette Marantos, “Food banks are already seeing double the demand. Planting food now can help you and others get through the uncertain days ahead.”

The conversation around self-sufficiency in terms of growing your own food has been around for a while, but it appears that the coronavirus lockdowns have pushed many people to do so as an emergency measure. "More people are thinking about where their food comes from, how easily it can be disrupted, and how to reduce disruptions," landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom, who designed Asia's largest urban rooftop farm in Bangkok, told Thomson Reuters Foundation. "People, planners and governments should all be rethinking how land is used in cities. Urban farming can improve food security and nutrition, reduce climate change impacts, and lower stress.”

The trend is also interesting considering a UN prediction that two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in cities by 2050. In many countries, self-sustenance practices such as permaculture, hydroponic farming or urban farming are an exercise to reap many benefits, from choosing chemical-free food, to bringing farm-to-table concepts in commercial settings, to maintaining mental health and creating an aesthetically pleasing terrace/garden. But in countries such as Singapore, where there are no local sources for food and therefore ends up importing a large chunk of their edibles, self-sustainable farming trends such as vertical and rooftop farms, hydroponic farming, or farm fishing, have become a way forward for economies facing food shortage.