RUAF Foundation and Ryerson University launch course series in Urban Agriculture

Available online, the course series will focus on urban agriculture as an integral part of sustainable food security. Read more

RUAF Update # 15 - July 2010

Please click here to read the latest news on the RUAF From Seed to Table Programme implemented in 17 cities worldwide.

Previous versions of the RUAF Update are available here.

UA Magazine 23: The Role of Urban Agriculture in Sustainable Urban Nutrient Management

The latest issue of the Urban Agriculture Magazine is now published online.

Towering success

People displaced by war in Sri Lanka enrich their diets by planting vertical vegetable gardens that are resource efficient, cheap to establish and even portable. Planting vertical vegetable gardens, or vegetable towers, is an innovation promoted by the RUAF Foundation, of which IWMI is a member and also regional coordinator of the RUAF-FSTT Programme in South Asia. Read more

Research for agricultural development

Find here a series of 1-minute video clips with farmers, and click here to see another series of 1-minute video clips with stake-holders (extension workers, government workers, private sector, farmers groups, etc) in the agricultural process to get their undigested views on the current system of research for agricultural development. These short clips, shot by Visiontime, have been screened at the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development event in March 2010 to remind participants of the voices of the farmers, and the need to reverse the international system of research to be less top-heavy and more responsive to the needs of the farmers.

Abalimi wins national Impumelelo Innovations for Sustainability Award 2010

Abalimi is one of the local implementing partners of the RUAF programme in Cape Town, South Africa. This project is supported by RUAF FSTT. Please watch this short video below by Impumelelo.

UA Magazine no 25: RUAF 10 years; Promoting Urban Agriculture

We welcome your contributions in the form of photos and short stories that show the development of urban agriculture in the past 10 years in a certain city or country and its impacts, or that analyse the role urban agriculture can play in answering major challenges in the near future (e.g. urban food security, climate change, productive reuse of wastewater and nutrients, etcetera). Please send us your contribution before 15 August 2010. For more information, please read the call for contributions.

Cities, Poverty and Food - Multi-Stakeholder Policy and Planning in Urban Agriculture

This new RUAF book presents the experience of RUAF in multi-stakeholder policy formulation and action planning for urban agriculture in programmes in over 20 cities in 17 countries, under the Cities Farming for the Future programme, implemented between 2005 and 2008. It provides valuable insights and guidelines to those who seek to enhance participatory governance, urban food security, urban poverty alleviation and improved urban environmental management.

Books can be pre-ordered at Practical Action Publishing • release date August 2010 • ISBN 9781853397097 • 184 pages • £15.95 • €23.95 • $31.95

A Garden in a Sack: Experiences in Kibera, Nairobi

More than 60 percent of the population of Nairobi lives in the numerous slums located around the city. Kibera slum is one of the 146 slums of the Kenyan capital and the second biggest slum in Africa (after Soweto in South Africa). Despite the challenges people face here — lack of water and sanitation services, space and lack of land ownership — they are thriving and living. Read about the experiences wih vertical farming in Kibera in this article (by Nancy Karanja, Danielle Nierenberg and Mary Njenga) or here (by Solidarites).

Course 3: Urban Agriculture Types

The third distance learning course on Urban Agriculture is available on http://moodle.ruaf.org/. Course 3 introduces the main urban agriculture types and systems found around the world, including different production systems as well as input supply, processing and marketing systems linked to urban agriculture. It explains why a typology of urban agriculture systems is needed and briefly describes each of the different urban agriculture types in terms of the actors involved, their resource-use, location, functions, technical aspects, development challenges and support needs.