Aims and agenda

Appropriate methods for urban agriculture. Research, policy development, planning, implementation and evaluation. (E-conference - February 4-16 2002)

Background

Urban Agriculture (UA, includes intra- and peri-urban agriculture) is an ancient practice but a recent focus of attention for a wide range of professionals associated with urban management, urban planning and agriculture. In the past these fields have been quite separate, and have elaborated their own approaches and methods associated with policy development, planning, research and monitoring and evaluation. We believe that to strengthen and develop agriculture in the urban environment, there is a pressing need not only to explore the adaptation of the wide range of methods used in rural agricultural research and development, but also to provide an innovative integration of these procedures with the specifically urban methods applied to understanding planning and policy issues.

These considerations have led us to identify six thematic areas through which to identify and debate appropriate methods for urban and peri-urban agriculture. These themes are explained below.

As part of a step-wise process of elaborating a set of integrated methods in these areas, over the past few months coordinators for each of these topics pulled together and synthesized current methodological experiences. During a recently held expert consultation workshop in Nairobi, these syntheses papers and the case studies were discussed and debated leading to revised synthesis papers. These papers are provided as starting points for this electronic conference.

Through the pooling, reviewing and systematizing of these experiences it should be possible to develop an enriched body of methods which urban and agricultural professionals can use to strengthen urban agriculture in their cities.

Objective

To bring together, exchange and discuss experiences gained with a variety of methodologies applied in urban agriculture research, policy development, spatial urban planning, project planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation

Participants

The conference is a platform to facilitate exchanges and discussion between:

• Researchers (universities, research centres, thematic networks)
• Urban planners, representatives of municipal departments and policy advisors
• Senior staff of NGO's, international and local projects, and other persons that have gained experience with the application of methodologies of relevance for this conference

Thematic areas

The conference organisers identified six thematic areas through which to identify and debate appropriate methods for urban agriculture. See Discussion Papers for a synthesis and discussion paper on each of these themes.

These themes are:

• TOPIC 1: Methods for situation analysis/diagnosis and baseline studies on UA
  The theme will consider (especially participatory/innovative) methods that can be used to analyse the characteristics of local UA systems, their productivity and the technologies applied, the type of producers and clients of each UA system and their needs/priorities, backward and forward linkages, use of soil, water and other resources, environmental and health impacts experienced, etc.
• TOPIC 2: Methods for participatory UA policy formulation and planning
  This theme will concentrate on methods that are suited for a participatory and ‘early implementation’ approach to policy formulation and planning, like stakeholder analysis, building of platforms for exchange of knowledge, negotiation and joint planning of priority action plans, participatory budgeting, mechanisms for intersectoral cooperation and concerted action, forms of public-private partnerships among others.
• TOPIC 3: Methods for Integration of UA in urban land use planning
  This theme reviews the methods that facilitate the integration of UA in the process of land use planning: the use of G.I.S-sytems, the integration of urban agriculture in zonification plans and other methods for land and water allocation.
• TOPIC 4: Methodology for participatory technology development in UA
  This theme focuses on participatory methods for technology development and diffusion in UA, including use of multiple sources of knowledge in the identification and screening of promising technologies, the participatory testing and adaptation of the most promising technologies under local urban farming conditions, use of adult education techniques in technology evaluation, and participatory diffusion of the results of the local experimentation.
• TOPIC 5: Methodology for monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of UA
  This theme focuses on appropriate methods to monitor and evaluate the impacts of UA on respectively food security and nutrition, health, income, employment and urban ecology. There is an emphasis on methods which are process oriented, participatory and concerned with joint learning, negotiation and consensual decision-making.
• TOPIC 6:Methodology for marketing assessments and micro-enterprise development related to UA
  Methods discussed in this theme relate to the analysis of consumers demands (food and non-food products), analysis of marketing channels and flows, assessment of linkages of UA enterprises to sources of credit, technical advice, labour, marketing information and other services; analysis of strengths and weaknesses of existing micro and small enterprises involved in input supply, production, processing and marketing of food and non-food products and methods to increase their efficiency and improve the safety and quality of the products offered.

Discussion papers

Appropriate methods for urban agriculture. Research, policy development, planning, implementation and evaluation. (E-conference - February 4-16 2002)

As part of a step-wise process of elaborating a set of integrated methods in these areas, over the past few months coordinators for each of these topics pulled together and synthesized current methodological experiences. The individual experiences and case studies on which the synthesis papers are base are published in the section Background Papers.

During a recently held expert consultation workshop in Nairobi, the syntheses papers and the case studies were discussed and debated, leading to revised synthesis papers. These papers are provided as starting points for this electronic conference.

The following papers are available:

Topic 1: Methodologies for Situation Analysis in Urban Agriculture
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By Adrienne Martin, Sabine Guendel and Nicoliene Oudwater
Livelihoods and Institutions Group, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich. United Kingdom

The paper considers methods that can be used to analyse the existence and characteristics of different UA systems, their productivity and the technologies applied, the type of producers and clients of each UA system and their needs/priorities, market channels, backward and forward linkages and external services, use of soil/water/waste resources, negative environmental and health impacts experienced, etc.

Topic 2: Appropriate Methodologies for Development of a Facilitating Framework for Planning and Policy in Urban Agriculture
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By Marielle Dubbeling
IPES / Urban Management Programme (UMP-LAC/UNCHS-HABITAT), Quito, Ecuador

This paper concentrates on methods that are suited for a participatory and ‘early implementation’ approach to policy formulation and planning It will include: stakeholder analysis, building of platforms for exchange of knowledge, negotiation and joint planning of priority action plans, participatory budgeting, mechanisms for intersectoral cooperation and concerted action; forms of public-private partnerships; flexible, dynamic, interactive planning; institutional aspects (mandates, coordination, budgetary considerations).

Topic 3: Technical Tools for Urban Land Use Planning
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By Axel Drescher
University of Freiburg, Germany

In spite of ongoing research on urban agriculture, in most of the world’s cities, little is known about the actual extent of urban agriculture in inner city areas. Also, little is known about the spatial distribution of urban agriculture in the cities.
Many questions arise: Where do urban agricultural activities concentrate and why, who is involved, what kinds of crops are grown and by which groups of city dwellers, what is the contribution of the product to nutrition and food security, which kinds of soils are occupied, how is water availability and quality, what is the distance to markets?
An important and so far in many countries unsolved problem are appropriate methodologies to integrate agricultural activities in cities into urban planning processes.

Topic 4: Appropriate methods for technology development in urban agriculture
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By Safiétou T. Fall¹ and Henk de Zeeuw^2
1 ISRA, Senegal
² ETC-RUAF, the Netherlands

This paper focuses on participatory methods for technology development and diffusion in urban agriculture, including use of multiple sources of knowledge in the identification and screening of promising technologies, the development, participatory testing and adaptation of the most promising technologies under local urban farming conditions, use of adult education techniques in technology evaluation, participatory diffusion of the results of the technology development and adaptation process; public-private partnerships in technology development and diffusion in urban agriculture.

Topic 5: Methods for Monitoring and Evaluation and its adaptation to urban and peri-urban agriculture
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Dindo Campilan¹, Pay Drechsel², and Daniel Jöcker^3
1 CIP-UPWARD, Manila, Philippines
² IWMI Ghana Office, Kumasi, Ghana
³ University of Konstanz, Dept. of Politics and Management, Germany

This paper focuses on frameworks, methods and tools to monitor and evaluate urban agriculture related projects and interventions as well as of the general or specific impacts of urban agriculture on food security and nutrition, health, income, employment and urban ecology. We are looking for case studies of conventional and participatory M&E approaches with emphasis on the adaptation of M&E and its indicators to the specific context and dynamic of urban agriculture.

Topic 6: Methods for Microenterprise Development in Urban Agriculture
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By Robert J. Holmer
Xavier University College of Agriculture, Cagayan de Oro, Philippines

Methods discussed in this paper relate to the analysis and strengthening of micro-enterprises in urban agriculture and marketing of urban agriculture products. This includes methods for analysis of consumers demands (food and non-food products), marketing channels and flows and their characteristics, assessment of the linkages between micro-enterprises involved in urban agriculture, methods to their access to credit, technical advice, labour, marketing information and other services; Analysis of strengths and weaknesses of existing micro and small enterprises related to urban agriculture and methods to improve actual management practices and efficiency in small scale enterprises involved in input supply, food processing and marketing in order to meet market demands.

Key questions

Appropriate methods for urban agriculture. Research, policy development, planning, implementation and evaluation. (E-conference - February 4-16 2002)

Focus

During the conference we will:

• Concentrate on methods and tools ("how to" issues), rather than on subject matter, whether agricultural technologies or the contents of policies, laws and regulations;
• Give emphasis to those methods that fill existing gaps and complement or go beyond more conventional "tried and tested" methods, and to those methods that can address the special characteristics of the urban setting and help to identify technical and process gaps;
• In general this will mean an emphasis on methods that are: participatory, problems based, policy and action oriented, multi-actor and multi-sector, interactive, interdisciplinary & system oriented, gender sensitive;
• We will welcome experiences gained within the field of UA as well as in related fields (like the Agenda 21 methodology, Healthy Cities approach, innovative urban planning approaches, PLA, PTD, farmer field schools, participatory natural resource management).

Key Questions

We kindly invite you to share your experiences (successes as well as failures!) with the application of the various methodologies of relevance in the field of UA in any of the following categories:

• Methods for Situation analysis/diagnosis and baseline studies on UPA
• Methods for Participatory UPA policy formulation and action planning
• Methods for Integration of UPA in urban land use planning
• Methods for Participatory technology development in UPA
• Methods for Marketing assessments and micro-enterprise development related to UPA
• Methods for Monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of UPA

We are happy to receive your comments on the topic papers, providing examples that support or falsify the experiences discussed in the synthesis papers and/or that throw more light on the gaps identified and the key issues raised at the end of each topic paper

We are especially interested in examples of:

• How you adapted existing methods for the specific conditions of urban agriculture, or developed new methods well adapted to the urban conditions;
• How you combined more conventional methods with innovative and participatory methods;
• The process of implementation of a specific methodology, the pre-conditions required to implement that method successfully and its cost-effectiveness;
• Methods adapted to suit better the interests of specific direct stakeholders in UA (women, poverty groups, young entrepreneurs, ethnic minorities) in the cities.

Background papers

Appropriate methods for urban agriculture. Research, policy development, planning, implementation and evaluation. (E-conference - February 4-16 2002)

List of Participants

Appropriate methods for urban agriculture. Research, policy development, planning, implementation and evaluation. (E-conference - February 4-16 2002)

List of participants
[155 KB]

Summary of Discussions

Appropriate methods for urban agriculture. Research, policy development, planning, implementation and evaluation. (E-conference - February 4-16 2002)

• Summary week 1
  [ 75 KB ]
• Summary week 2
  [ 92 KB ]

Final Conclusions and Recommendations

Appropriate methods for urban agriculture. Research, policy development, planning, implementation and evaluation. (E-conference - February 4-16 2002)

Document contents

• Introduction
• Participatory methods
• Temporal processes
• Spatial processes
• Socio-economic and Political context for Urban Agriculture

Download final conclusions
[38 KB]