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.