What is urban and per-urban agriculture about?

"Urban Agriculture is an activity that produces, processes, and markets food and other products, on land and water in urban and peri-urban areas, applying intensive production methods, and (re)using natural resources and urban wastes, to yield a diversity of crops and livestock". (UNDP, 1996)

"Urban Agriculture is an industry located within (intra-urban) or on the fringe (peri-urban) of a town, an urban centre, a city or metropolis, which grows or raises, processes and distributes a diversity of food and non-food products, reusing mainly human and material resources, products and services found in and around that urban area, and in turn supplying human and material resources, products and services largely to that urban area". (Mougeot, 1999)

The most striking feature of urban and peri-urban agriculture, is that it is integrated into the urban economic and ecological system: urban agriculture is embedded in -and interacting with- the urban ecosystem. Such linkages include the use of urban residents as laborers, use of typical urban resources (like organic waste as compost and urban wastewater for irrigation), direct links with urban consumers, direct impacts on urban ecology (positive and negative), being part of the urban food system, competing for land with other urban functions, being influenced by urban policies and plans, etc.

Characteristics of urban and peri-urban agriculture

Urban agriculture refers to small areas (e.g. vacant plots, gardens, verges, balconies, containers) within the city for growing crops and raising small livestock or milk cows for own-consumption or sale in neighborhood markets. 

Peri-urban agriculture refers to farm units close to town which operate intensive semi- or fully commercial farms to grow vegetables and other horticulture, raise chickens and other livestock, and produce milk and eggs.

Urban and peri-urban agriculture occurs within and surrounding the boundaries of cities throughout the world and includes products from crop and livestock agriculture, fisheries and forestry in the urban and peri-urban area. It also includes non-wood forest products, as well as ecological services provided by agriculture, fisheries and forestry. Often multiple farming and gardening systems exist in and near a single city.

Why urban and peri-urban agriculture?

The rapid urbanization that is taking place goes together with a rapid increase in urban poverty and urban food insecurity.

Most cities in developing countries have great difficulties to cope with this development and are unable to create sufficient formal employment opportunities for the poor. They also have increasing problems with the disposal of urban wastes and waste water and maintaining air and river water quality.

Urban agriculture provides a complementary strategy to reduce urban poverty and food insecurity and enhance urban environmental management. Urban agriculture plays an important role in enhancing urban food security since the costs of supplying and distributing food to urban areas based on rural production and imports continue to increase, and do not satisfy the demand, especially of the poorer sectors of the population.

Next to food security, urban agriculture contributes to local economic development, poverty alleviation and social inclusion of the urban poor and women in particular, as well as to the greening of the city and the productive reuse of urban wastes (see below for further explanations and examples). 

Benefits of UPA

Contributions to urban food security

• Improve food intake: improved access to a cheap source of proteins;
• Improve the quality of the food: poor urban families involved in farming could eat more fresh vegetables than other families in the same income category.

Contributions to urban ecology

• Could solve the problem of wastewater and organic wastes by turning urban wastes into a productive resource;
• Positive impact upon the gardening and cleaning of the city by turning derelict open spaces into green zones and maintaining buffer and reserve zones free of housing;
• Disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change by reducing runoff, keeping flood plains free from construction, reducing urban temperatures, capturing dust and CO2.

Economic impacts

• Growing your own food saves household expenditures on food ;
• Selling produce (fresh or processed) brings cash;
• Stimulates the development of related micro-enterprises: the production of necessary agricultural inputs and the processing, packing and marketing of outputs.

Social impacts

• Important strategy for poverty alleviation and social integration by involving disadvantaged groups into the urban network and providing them therefore with a decent livelihood;
• Physical and/or psychological relaxation;
• Recreational opportunities for citizens (recreational routes, food buying and meals on urban and peri-urban farms) and educational functions (teaching about ecology, bringing youth in contact with animals).

Sources: www.ruaf.org, www.fao.org.  

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