Before being able to plan for the development of urban agriculture in a given city, it will be important to better understand the current presence of, problems with and potentials for urban agriculture in that city.  The first task in any planning process is thus to define the present state of urban agriculture in the city. This can be done by implementing a situation analysis on urban agriculture.

The situation analysis should help you to answer the following questions:

1. What are the urban agriculture types currently found in the city and what are their charcateristics, development potentials and main support needs?
2. Where is urban agriculture currently undertaken in and around the city or where could urban agriculture potentially take place?
3. Who are the main actors involved in urban agriculture and what can be their role to supports its development?
4. How can urban agriculture best be promoted and how can it best contribute to the city's policy goals?

WHAT?What are the UA systems currently found in the city?  What are their main characteristics, development potentials and support needs? Who are the urban farmers, input-suppliers and/or vendors involved and what are their perceptions on the problems they encounter and the potentials for development that they identify? In doing so, the situation analysis should explore issues of gender, age and social inclusion. Only then will it become possible to formulate policies and projects sensitive to gender, youth, the urban poor etc. later on in the process.

Please look back at module 3 where we discussed a general typology of urban farming systems. Tools for participatory rapid appraisal of different UA types will be discussed in the next module.

WHERE?
Where are the various types UA currently undertaken in and around the city? Are there any vacant open spaces where UA could possibly take place? What are their characteristics, accessibility and suitability for UA? This will help thinking about how to enhance access to land for urban agriculture by certain target groups.  What are past, current and future changes in land related to (proposed) city expansion? All this information will allow identifying in what areas urban agriculture might be undertaken in a sustainable way.

This component of UA land use mapping will be further discussed in course CVFN 413 (Urban agriculture policy making). Tools for land use mapping will also be dealt with in that specific course.

WHO?
Who are the main institutional (indirect) stakeholders in UA? What are their interests, their perceptions of UA as well as their potential contributions to the development of UA? An analysis of the institutional framework for UA will provide us with an overview of available institutional expertise and resources that can be mobilized for the diagnosis, planning and implementation of UA; a basis to decide what organizations have to be involved in each stage of the process and what their role and contributions might be; and a basis to develop effective communication strategies to motivate these organizations to participate actively in an UA planning and development process.

HOW?
Based on the above, how can urban agriculture best be promoted? How does it contribute to existing policy and planning goals? What types of projects or policies are necessary to promote different types of urban agriculture? To be able to answer these questions, it will also be needed to implement a critical review of existing policies, plans, norms and regulations on urban agriculture. CVFN 413 (Urban agriculture policy making) will discuss how to implement such a policy review as well as explain in detail how to develop action plans and formulate policies on urban agriculture, based on an initial situation analysis.

Summary
In summary, a situation analysis is thus undertaken with the following objectives:

a. To collect existing and some additional qualitative and quantitative information regarding urban and peri-urban agriculture in the city (what, where, who); 

b. Which will serve as a basis for:

• the identification of the main key issues to be addressed: needs, problems, potentials and opportunities for safe and sustainable UA development in the city
• the identification of possible strategies and interventions (information campaigns, training, research, projects, policies etcetera) to respond to those problems and opportunities and to enhance the role of UA in urban poverty alleviation, urban food security, local economic development, and creation of a better living environment.

c. Especially if the situation analysis is implemented in collaboration with a group of local stakeholders it will also function as a means to build up the mutual understanding, dialogue and  collaboration between different stakeholders in urban and peri-urban agriculture (various types of urban farmers, food vendors, community organizations, NGO’s, municipal authorities including. urban planners, health authorities, water  and waste management  authorities, etc.) and to enhance their commitment to participate in concerted planning and actions regarding UA . 

Often, an initial situation analysis will be followed in later stages of the planning process by more focused in depth studies of specific problems and potential solutions.