Published by City Farmer, Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture

United Nations Publication

Urban Agriculture:
Food, Jobs and Sustainable Cities

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Urban Agriculture:Food, Jobs & Sustainable Cities

Table of Contents

Contents

Illustrations

Introduction to the series

Foreword

Preface

Acronyms

Part I: The Global Significance of Urban Agriculture

1. Cities that feed themselves

• Myths and reality
• Basic concepts
• Urban agriculture and urban systems
  • The urban nutrient cycle
  • The urban food system
• Structure of urban agriculture
  • Preproduction
  • Production
  • Postproduction
• Notes

2. Urban agriculture yesterday and today

• A brief history of urban agriculture
• Asia
• Africa
• Latin America
• Europe and North America
  • Europe
  • North America
• Summary: Comparisons across continents
• Notes

Part II: What is Urban Agriculture?

3. Who are the urban farmers?

• Low-income farmers
• Middle- and high-income farmers
• Domestic and international agribusinesses
• Farmers cooperatives
• Special groups of farmers
  • Women farmers
  • Immigrant farmers
  • Crisis farmers
• Notes

4. Where is farming found in the city?

• Types of spaces used
  • Around the house
  • Community spaces
  • Surplus or reserve public and private spaces
  • Roadsides and other rights-of-way
  • Streamsides and floodplains
  • Water bodies and wetlands
  • Steep slopes
• Duration of use
  • Permanent use
  • Long-term use
  • Short-term use
• Location within the metropolitan area
  • Core
  • Corridors
  • Wedges
  • Periphery
• Access to land and tenure
• Notes

5. Producing food and fuel in urban areas

• Aquaculture
  • Aquatic plants
  • Fish and other seafood
• Horticulture
  • Container horticulture
  • Soilless horticulture
• Animal husbandry
  • Poultry
  • Small livestock
  • Large livestock
• Agroforestry
• Other urban farming activity
  • Fauna
  • Flora
• Notes

6. Which organizations influence urban agriculture?

• Different roles for different organizations
• Support organizations
  • Farmers associations
  • Non-governmental organizations
• Governments and public authorities
  • Local governments
  • National governments
• Institutions
  • Institutional providers
  • Research institutes
• International development agencies
• Other stakeholders
• Partnerships among organizations
• Notes

Part III: Benefits, Problems and Constraints

7. The benefits of urban agriculture

• Health, nutrition and food security
• Social benefits
• Economic benefits
  • Employment, income generation and enterprisedevelopment
  • The national agriculture sector and urban food supply
  • Economic use of land
• Sustainable urbanization
  • Environmental enhancement
  • Efficient urban management
  • Waste management benefits
  • Conservation of resources
• Disaster mitigation
  • Productive use of hazard-prone and sensitive areas
  • Mitigation of civil and economic crises
• Notes

8. Problems related to urban agriculture

• Health and hygiene problems
  • Crop cultivation in polluted city environments
  • Use of chemicals in urban farming
  • Use of domestic waste in urban farming
  • Rearing livestock in cities
• Environmental problems
• Other problems
  • Inefficient use of resources
  • Aesthetic impacts
• Notes

9. Constraints on urban agriculture

• Sociocultural biases and institutional constraints
  • The "modern" view of cities
  • "Traditional" sociocultural biases
  • Institutional constraints
• Constraints on access to resources
  • Irrigation
  • Land and water surfaces
• Constraints on access to inputs
• Constraints on access to services
  • Credit
  • Other services
• Special risks of urban farming
• Postproduction constraints
• Organizational constraints
• Notes

Part IV: The Future of Urban Agriculture

10. Promoting urban agriculture through policy and action

• Interventions within and across sectors
  • Increase public knowledge and support
  • Build political will
  • Improve organization and communication among farmers
  • Develop a policy framework and build institutional capacity
  • Expand research and training
  • Improve access to resources, inputs and services
  • Maximize health, nutrition and food security
  • Achieve sound environmental and urban management
• Intervening at the most effective level
  • Community-level actions
  • City-level actions
  • National-level actions
  • International-level actions
• Notes

Appendices

A. Acknowledgements

B. Glossary

C. Sources for cases

D. Countries cited in figures, cases and photos

E. Cities and towns visited by The Urban Agriculture Network, 1991-95

F. Selected resource people

G. Selected readings

H. Response form

Illustrations

Tables

• 2.1 Global estimates of urban agricultural activity

• 2.2 Selected data on the extent of urban agriculture

• 3.1 Presence of urban farmers in selected cities

• 3.2 Gender composition of urban farmers in selected cities

• 4.1 Extent of urban land used for agriculture in selected cities

• 4.2 Types of land used for urban agriculture in selected cities

• 4.3 Forms of land ownership and potential for farming in urban settlements

• 5.1 Farming systems common to urban areas

• 6.1 Roles of organizations that influence urban agriculture

• 6.2 Examples of NGOs active in urban agriculture

• 6.3 Examples of governmental organizations active in urban agriculture

• 6.4 Examples of universities and other institutions involved in research on urban agriculture

• 6.5 Examples of international agencies supporting urban agriculture

• 7.1 Examples of the impact of urban agriculture on health, nutrition and food security

• 7.2 Examples of the impact of urban agriculture on job and income generation

• 7.3 Cities among the world's 100 largest metropolitan areas spend 50% or more of household income by all income groups on food

• 7.4 Examples of urban agriculture's waste management benefits

• 8.1 Problems associated with urban agriculture

• 10.1 Community, city, national and international roles in promoting urban agriculture

Figures

• 1.1 Evolution of the food-growing nutrient cycle

• 1.2 Processes in the urban food supply system

• 1.3 A closed-loop urban food system

• 2.1*Historical intensive gardening outside a Chinesewalled city

• 2.2 Plan of Aachen, Germany, 1649, showing widespread farming inside and outside the city walls

• 2.3*Pre-Columbian chinampas of the valley of Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City)

• 2.4*Cultivation under cloches in the marais of Paris in the 19th century

• 4.1 Flat plain of the Niger and farmable gaps between the settled zones of Bamako

• 4.2 Areas suitable for permanent or long-term urban agriculture

• 4.3 Recycling of nutrients in a chinampa

• 4.4 Four-zone model of a city

• 4.5 Land use map of greater Beirut, 1986

• 7.1 Main contributions of urban agriculture

• 7.2 Two models of urbanization

• 8.1 Areas irrigated with wastewater and producing contaminated vegetables, Santiago, Chile, 1990

Cases

• 2.1 Urban agriculture systems in pre-Columbian America

• 2.2 The 19th-Century marais of Paris

• 2.3 Urban agriculture in Singapore

• 2.4 Urban agriculture in Indonesia

• 2.5 Urban agriculture in Tanzania

• 2.6 Urban agriculture in Peru

• 2.7 Urban agriculture in the Netherlands

• 3.1 Small-scale horticulturists in a squatter settlement in Lusaka

• 3.2 Backyard gardeners in Maipz using biointensive methods

• 3.3 Growing ornamental crops at home in Lusaka

• 3.4 Vegetable and fruit production by Del Montein Manila

• 3.5 Sewage-fed fisheries cooperatives in Calcutta

• 4.1 Growing rooftop and patio salad cactus in Mexico City

• 4.2 Community farming in a low-income neighbourhood of Kisangani

• 4.3 Cultivation at a large industrial site at Camagari

• 4.4 Growing vegetables along roadsides of Dar es Salaam

• 4.5 Cultivation in the flood plain of the Niger Riverin Bamako

• 4.6 Wastewater fisheries in China

• 4.7 Reforestation of the slopes of Mont Ngafullain Kinshasa

• 4.8 The chinampas of Mexico City

• 4.9 Cultivation under electric transmission lines in Rio de Janeiro

• 4.10 Community gardens in Barrio Matalahib, Manila

• 5.1 Wastewater purification using duckweed

• 5.2 Sewage-fed aquaculture in San Juan, Lima

• 5.3 VAC yard horticulture in Viet Nam

• 5.4 Shallow-bed gardening on inner-city rooftops in Port-au-Prince and Saint Petersburg

• 5.5 Farming without soil: women's hydroponic cooperative, Jerusalen, Bogota

• 5.6 Backyard poultry farms in Morogoro

• 5.7 Milk production in the Oyster Bay district of Dar es Salaam

• 5.8 Food and fuel production programme in Lae

• 6.1 Promotion of urban farming by the Undugu Societyin Nairobi

• 6.2 Government-planned urban farming in the Shanghai urban region

• 6.3 AVRDC's multipronged programme

• 6.4 International agencies promoting urban agriculture in Tanzania

• 7.1 Growing food for community kitchens in Lima

• 7.2 Social benefits of urban farming supported by Peru Mujerin Lima

• 7.3 Integrated urban farming in Pikine, Dakar

• 7.4 Income generation and enterprise development in Jakarta

• 7.5 Urban farming for import substitution in Sri Lanka and Ghana

• 7.6 "Productive ecological settlements' in Ajusco, Mexico City

• 7.7 Growing vegetables on garbage dumps in East Calcutta

• 7.8 Cultivating vetiver grass for environmental and disaster control

• 7.9 Greenhouse farming in response to civil war in Beirut

• 8.1 Cholera outbreak in Santiago caused by the use of raw sewage in urban agriculture

• 9.1 Influence of government policy on the development of urban agriculture in Lusaka

• 9.2 Using treated wastewater for irrigation in Tunisia

• 9.3 Producing organic fertilizer from urban waste in China

• 9.4 Pro Huerta, a national agency in Argentina that supports small-scale urban farmers

• 9.5 Cooperatives for livestock production, processing and packaging: Urban Food Foundation, Manila

• 9.6 Saturday market for urban produce in Managua

Photos

• 2.1 Raised-bed horticulture in Singapore

• 2.2 Horticulture on surplus land at a racetrack in Jakarta

• 2.3 Urban cows and cowherd in Morogoro, Tanzania

• 2.4 Community kitchen garden supported by CAREin Lima

• 3.1 Urban gardener and his family cultivate for their own consumption and the market in Lusaka

• 3.2 Husband and wife backyard gardeners in Maipz,near Santiago

• 3.3 Middle-income ornamental horticulturists at work in their front yard in Lusaka

• 3.4 Kitchen garden for a restaurant in greater Bogota

• 3.5 Medium-size poultry business in Lusaka

• 3.6 Lagoon in Calcutta farmed through a fishermen cooperative using treated sewage

• 3.7 Women selling their farm products at a street marketin Abidjan

• 3.8 "Victory garden" in front of the San Francisco civic centre during the Second World War

• 4.1 "Cactus in a box", Mexico City

• 4.2 Community garden in a churchyard in San Josi,Costa Rica

• 4.3 Maize being grown in front of a government hospital in Port-au-Prince

• 4.4 Roadside horticulture in a wealthy residential area of Nairobi

• 4.5 Intensive horticulture in a flood plain near the city centre of Dar es Salaam

• 4.6 Catfish pond in urban Taiwan (province of China)

• 4.7 Mixed cropping on steep slopes outside Nairobi

• 4.8 Chinampa aqua-terra farming system of Mexico City

• 4.9 Cultivation on airport buffer land in Manila

• 4.10 Vegetables growing in community gardening plots in Barrio Matalahib, Manila

• 5.1 Duckweed cultivation at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok

• 5.2 Integrated fish cultivation near Panama City

• 5.3 Community garden at the Presidio military base in San Francisco, an example of consumption-oriented horticulture

• 5.4 New onions and maize, Pikine, Dakar, an example of income-oriented horticulture

• 5.5 Container gardening in Santiago

• 5.6 Hydroponic cultivation for the market in Jerusalen, Bogota

• 5.7 "Bookcase" chicken raising in Santiago

• 5.8 Pigs raised on market waste in Ghanna, Abidjan

• 5.9 Ornamental tree nursery in the heart of Nairobi

• 5.10 Urban agroforestry with multicropping in Lae

• 5.11 Vineyards overlooking central areas of Freiburg, Germany

• 5.12 Large-scale ornamental horticulture in Port-au-Prince

• 6.1 Sign posted at a large community garden for families of Costa Rican public forces, listing cooperating public agencies and NGOs

• 6.2 Training and research centre of SEMTA, an NGO in La Paz

• 6.3 Master plan for Canton, which includes agriculture

• 6.4 Researcher at an AVRDC experimental facility in Taiwan studying small-scale aquatic home gardens

• 6.5 GTZ's horticultural demonstration site in Dodoma

• 7.1 Community kitchen in Lima that uses produce grown in community gardens to improve the nutritional quality of meals

• 7.2 Fresh meat being sold at a farmers market in Managua

• 7.3 Community gathering in Sagbe, Abidjan, for the smoking of locally caught fish

• 7.4 Training facility operated by Peru Mujer on hospital grounds in Lima

• 7.5 Small-scale ornamental horticulture production and retail at a roadside near Dakar

• 7.6 Large ornamental horticulture enterprise in Bogota

• 7.7 Drying fish in Pikine, Dakar

• 7.8 Hawkers market in Nairobi

• 7.9 Start of a reforestation campaign in Villa El Salvador,a suburb of Lima

• 7.10 Attractive, well-maintained vegetable garden, San Josi, Costa Rica

• 7.11 Sheep grazing on public land in Rome

• 7.12 Composting bin at a 75-year-old community garden in Zschortau, near Leipzig, Germany

• 7.13 Animal-powered cart bringing produce into Beijing

• 7.14 Greenhouses within the "green belt" of Beirut

• 8.1 Young farmer applying untreated sewage on leafy vegetables in Pikine, Dakar

• 8.2 Animals roaming in fields outside Asmara, Eritrea, polluting them with uncomposted feces

• 8.3 Goats grazing on park land in Oyster Bay, Dar es Salaam

• 9.1 Sewage-based experimental aquaculture pond at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok

• 9.2 Vermi-composting of domestic waste for use as fertilizer in Jakarta

• 9.3 Extension service specialist training a neighbourhood volunteer leader in Panama City

• 9.4 High wall protecting an orchard in Lima

• 9.5 Rice mill at a women's cooperative in Dakar

• 9.6 Packaging herbs in Abidjan

• 9.7 Home-processed salsa being sold at a market in Managua

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