The processes of population growth and urbanisation will lead to a more or less equal world-wide distribution of population in rural and urban areas by the year 2025. At present, however, there are great differences between the continents. Due to the rapid growth of Southern African cities, the basic needs of the citizens (shelter, food, education etc) are being undermined. Poverty levels in cities are high and research shows they are tending to increase. Recent surveys suggest that the locus of poverty is shifting to urban areas, making food insecurity and malnutrition an urban as well as a rural problem.
Urban agriculture is one of the livelihood strategies that vulnerable urban dwellers engage in. The main differences from rural agriculture are limitations of space, access to land, and water quality. In view of the lack of transport in many developing countries, the production of fresh, perishable vegetables in urban areas can be considered as “niche production”, complementary to the rural production of staple food.
Urban horticulture is dominating urban food production in many countries. Climatic and cultural conditions clearly affect the kind of production. Production sites are gardens, open spaces (often illegally occupied), road strips and riverbanks, fishponds, rivers, lakes and the proper houses of the families. Urban agriculture is typically informal, often illegal but wide spread, and often done under extremely difficult conditions.
Technical assistance to cities is needed to take advantage of the benefits of urban agriculture for city development and urban food security. Urban agriculture may help to solve some of the problems of city authorities through integrated programmes of waste water re-use and organic waste recycling, as well as through the integration of market wastes with urban fodder consumption.
Source:
http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=643_29
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