George Danso and Paule Moustier

In: Cities Farming for the Future - Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities

This chapter deals with the socio-economic impact of urban agriculture on income generation, poverty alleviation, urban food supply, livelihoods, as well as indirect costs and benefits for society including environmental externalities. Two levels of analysis are considered to assess this impact: the household and the city. The assessment of social and economic impact at the city level suffers more from lack of data than is the case at the household level. A main question is whether urban agriculture should be seen as an informal, residual, subsistence activity or as one that can shift from simple to enlarged reproduction of urban food, by making the best of its proximity to urban consumers and sustaining incomes in the long run.

Jac Smit and Martin Bailkey

In: Cities Farming for the Future - Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities

The worldwide practice of urban agriculture has shown itself to be anoften-successful model for the inclusion of different urban subcommunities into an intentional social organisation typically focused on producing the necessary resource of food. But the general value of urban agriculture as a means of achieving several other community objectives – in building community capital – is of equal significance. This chapter suggests how community capital is composed of seven dimensions, each of which is commonly addressed in some way through the practice of urban agriculture. The multi-faceted character of successful community-based urban agriculture examples is based upon the addressing of one or more of these seven dimensions to create a place-based form of grassroots community development, while also involving representatives of often-marginalised subgroups, such as women, youth and the poor.

Alice J. Hovorka and Diana Lee-Smith

In: Cities Farming for the Future - Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities

Urban agriculture has been embraced and promoted by the international development community as a means for urban dwellers to achieve sustainable livelihoods and socio-economic advancement. Many low-income households who farm in the cities gain a more consistent source of food and better nutrition. They can also earn or free up cash for non-food items. Advocacy for urban agriculture was initially focused on the policy agenda, but has moved recently into the realm of municipal development. Now that municipal authorities increasingly recognise this pivotal activity, it is easier for urban agriculture practitioners to integrate it into planning and decisionmaking mechanisms at the city level. This chapter seeks to make clear why this trajectory must be conceptualised along gender lines, since
gender dynamics are central to the form, function, organisation and structure of urban farming.

Yves Cabannes

In: Cities Farming for the Future - Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities

Financial support can make a significant difference to poor urban families. Many of the increasing group of urban dwellers who live around the poverty line are (informal) micro-entrepreneurs, involved in a diversity of activities such as waste collection and recycling, trading, having a shop, transport and farming. These entrepreneurs require access to working capital, but most of them face limited access to credit and investment schemes. Important lesson can be drawn from rural micro-finance programmes. The challenge now is to further build on these experiences, including (partnerships with) the private banking sector and rural innovative micro-finance institutions. This chapter reviews lessons learnt from studies in the urban setting.

Takawira Mubvami, Shingirayi Mushamba and Henk de Zeeuw

In: Cities Farming for the Future - Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities

Urban agriculture is a relatively new urban issue, in which different sectors and institutions are involved. It requires the development of new planning practices, or the adaptation of existing ones, and supportive policies. The preceding chapter argues that participatory and multi-stakeholder processes and tools are required in this process. This chapter elaborates on this argument by focusing on urban land use planning. It takes a South East African perspective and analyses the different paradigms, approaches and tools towards urban policy making and planning related to urban agriculture. Major issues and challenges include the distribution, control of and access to the use of land and other resources, conflicts between uses and users and the regulatory framework for urban agriculture. The chapter ends with a discussion on planning tools and techniques which can be used to integrate urban agriculture into urban planning and development.

Marielle Dubbeling and Gunther Merzthal

In: Cities Farming for the Future - Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities

Urban agriculture relates to a variety of urban issues, like urban poverty, land use planning, waste management, food securiy, economic development, public health, and community development. Many stakeholders can be identified who play a role and who (should) have a say in planning and development of urban agriculture and related activities, like input provision, vegetable production, aquaculture, livestock production, processing and marketing. To increase the contribution of urban agriculture to sustainable urban development requires involvement in planning and policy making of these different stakeholders. Multi-stakeholder processes dealing with urban agriculture are of recent nature. The lessons learned in the International Network of Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food security (RUAF) are described.

René van Veenhuizen

In: Cities Farming for the Future - Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities

Attention to urban agriculture has increased markedly during the last couple of decades. The number of activities to promote urban agriculture at international, national and local level has grown, but urban farmers in many cities in the world still struggle to get their main survival strategy recognised by city authorities. The demand of policy makers and local practitioners for inspiring examples of successful policies and actions in cities is therefore growing. Urban agriculture contributes to a wide variety of urban issues and is increasingly being accepted and used as a tool in sustainable city development. Currently the challenge is its integration into city planning and facilitation of its multiple benefits for urban inhabitants. This book seeks to present the current state of affairs regarding urban agriculture and sustainable urban development.

Dinesh Mehta
Coordinator, Urban Management Programme, UN-Habitat

In: Cities Farming for the Future - Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities

Please open attached pdf-file to view the foreword by Mr. Dinesh Mehta

Please open attached pdf-file to view the table of contents

The first pages of the book can be found in the pdf-file listed below.