Search Results (9)

In many developing countries, ensuring a stable and affordable supply of safe and nutritious food for urban dwellers, especially impoverished households, has become an urgent policy issue due to growing urban populations. Since urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) has emerged as a potential solution, research interest in UPA has increased. However, most studies have been conducted in specific African towns, and analyses in Asian countries are scarce. In addition, further research must be performed on urban and peri-urban livestock farming (UPLF), which may provide animal-based protein to the urban population. Therefore, this study aims to clarify who raises livestock in the urban and peri-urban areas of eight developing Asian countries using raw data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). The aggregation results reveal that at least 10% of households keep livestock, with more than 30% of households in four of the eight Asian countries practicing UPLF. Poultry is the most common type of livestock, and the number of animals per household is usually limited. Logistic regression analysis reveals that poorer families are more likely to raise livestock, suggesting UPLF can enhance food and nutritional security for low-income households. Full article

(1) Background: A large body of literature is available on the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of alternative food systems, but not much of it is devoted to the dynamics underlying their design and implementation, more specifically the processes that make an alternative food system successful or not in terms of its sustainability aims. This gap seems to be particularly critical in studies concerning alternative food systems in urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA). This paper explores how the design and implementation of multifunctional farming activity in a peri-urban area surrounding the city of Reggio Emilia in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy impact the achievement of its sustainability aims. (2) Methods: The environmental, social, and economic components of this project are explored in light of the sociology of market agencements. This method brings up the motivations of the human entities involved in the project, the role played by nonhuman entities, and the technical devices used for the fulfillment of the project’s aims. (3) Results: The alternative food system under study lacked a robust design phase and a shared definition of the project aims among all the stakeholders involved. This ended in a substantial mismatch between project aims and consumer expectations. (4) Conclusions: When a comprehensive design stage is neglected, the threefold aim concerning sustainability might not be achievable. In particular, the design of alternative food systems must take into account the social environment where it is intended to be put in place, especially in UPA, where consumers often live in suburban neighborhoods wherein the sense of community is not strong, thus preventing them from getting involved in a community-based project. In such cases, hybridization can play a role in the sustainability of alternative food networks, provided that some trade-offs occur among the different components of sustainability—some components of sustainability will be fully achieved, while others will not. Full article

Urban and peri-urban areas are subject to major societal challenges, like food security, climate change, biodiversity, resource efficiency, land management, social cohesion, and economic growth. In that context, Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA), thanks to its multifunctionality, could have a high value in providing social, economic, and environmental co-benefits. UPA is an emerging field of research and production that aims to improve food security and climate change impact reduction, improving urban resilience and sustainability. In this paper, a replicable GIS-based approach was used to localize and quantify available areas for agriculture, including both flat rooftop and ground-level areas in the mainland of the city of Venice (Italy). Then, possible horticultural yield production was estimated considering common UPA yield value and average Italian consumption. Climate change mitigation, like CO₂ reduction and sequestration, and climate change adaptation, like Urban Flooding and Urban Heat Island reduction, due to the new UPA areas’ development were estimated. Despite the urban density, the identified areas have the potential to produce enough vegetables for the residents and improve climate change mitigation and adaptation, if transformed into agricultural areas. Finally, the paper concludes with a reflection on the co-benefits of UPA multifunctionality, and with some policy suggestions. Full article

Different studies demonstrate that urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) operate in so-called alternative food networks (AFNs). However, very little is known about UPA’s relational business models. Therefore, this paper investigates how the urban and peri-urban farms (UPFs) form business relationships in food networks. Their business and social relationships are much more comprehensive than traditional transactional relationships. Therefore, this study aims to delimitate the relational model of UPFs. The managers and owners of nine UPFs in Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, in 2019 and 2020 were investigated. To this end, we employed a triple triangulation approach—methodological, theoretical, and investigator. The study refers primarily to the theory of inter-organisational relations (IORs); the empirical analysis adopts a network approach and activities–resources–actors (ARA) model framework. The study identifies UPFs business relationships and the main features of their networks, which led to the development of a conceptual relational UPFs model. This shows the diversification of activities, the competitiveness of resources and formality of organisational structures as a basis of a farm business, the integration of activities, the sharing of resources, and the collaboration of actors as the basis of the relationship. Finally, this shows the joint nature of activities—locality of resources and mutual trust among actors—as the basis of UPFs networking. Full article

Urban and peri-urban agricultural (UPA) production systems in West African countries do not only mitigate food and financial insecurity, they may also foster biodiversity of arthropods and partly compensate for structural losses of natural environments. However, management practices in UPA systems like irrigation may also contribute to disturbances in arthropod ecology. To fill knowledge gaps in the relationships between UPA management and arthropod populations, we compared arthropods species across different irrigation sources in Tamale. During a 72-h sampling period, 14,226 arthropods were caught with pitfall traps and pan traps from 36 fields. These specimens comprised 13 orders, 103 families, 264 genera, and 329 taxa (243 identified species, 86 unidentified species) and categorized into five feeding guilds (carnivores, decomposers, herbivores, omnivores, and pollinators). Species richness, species accumulation curves, and diversity functions (richness, evenness, and dispersion) were calculated to characterize the arthropod community. Non-metric multidimensional scaling was applied to examine structural similarity of arthropod communities among sites. To account for the effects of soil-related data, we furthermore applied a redundancy analysis. Arthropods grouped according to the irrigation water source, whereby the dipterans were most dominant under wastewater conditions. Here, particularly the eye gnat, Hippelates pusio, a disease-causing vector for humans, accounted for the dipterans. The occurrence of three alien ant species suggested community shifts through invasive species, while the occurrence of seven ant species (at least one ant species occurred under each water source) that form mutualistic relationships with aphids highlighted future risks of aphid pest outbreak. Future studies on these taxa should specifically target their ecological and economic effects and potential countermeasures. Full article

Regardless of the steady increase in the economic growth of South Africa, poverty levels and food insecurity have not declined as one would have anticipated. Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) presents an opportunity as a livelihood strategy to alleviate poverty and ensure household food security within the urban and peri-urban spheres. However, less research has been done in this area to discover the contribution of UPA on households’ food security. This paper assesses the food security status of households that practised any form of UPA activities (later on referred to the rest of this paper as UPA practising households) and those that did not (later on referred to the rest of this paper as non-UPA practising households) within the Tongaat peri-urban area of eThekwini Municipality. The specific objectives of the paper are to estimate the household food security status of the UPA practising households vis-à-vis the non-UPA practising households and to elicit the reasons associated with the practice of UPA activities. Two hundred and eight (208) households (that is 109 and 99 UPA and non-UPA practising households respectively) were selected using a stratified random sampling procedure. The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) and Household Food Insecurity Access Score (HFIAS) measures were employed to estimate a household’s food security status. A probit regression analysis was used to elicit the reasons associated with the practice of UPA activities by households. A non-parametric independent samples test (Mann-Whitney U) was used to compare whether there were significant differences between the two groups. A Pearson Chi-Square test reveals that the employment status, access to arable land, land tenure (ownership rights or arable land) and household monthly income variables were statistically significantly associated with the food security status (in terms of HDDS) of households. The results from the HDDS tool, show that a greater proportion (54%) of the UPA practising households consumed >6 food groups (deemed to be food secure in terms of dietary access) as compared to their counterparts, the non-UPA practising households (40%) in the same food group. However, the Mann-Whitney U test (U = 5292, p = 0.808) show that there was no significant difference from this data in terms of the dietary diversity (HDDS) of the two groups. The HFIAS measure reveal that a greater proportion (about 72%) of the UPA practising households indicated that they never or rarely worried about food shortages (deemed to be food secure in terms of food access) as compared to their counterparts—the non-UPA practising households (about 61%) that never or rarely worried about food shortages. The Mann-Whitney U test (U = 4118.5, p = 0.001) show that there was a significant difference in terms of food access (HFIAS) of the two groups. Overall, the results show that although UPA practising households seemed to be better off in terms of food access as compared to the non-UPA households, the results are inconclusive or show no evidence that a significant difference existed concerning dietary diversity of the two groups. The probit regression analysis shows that the variable arable land size (p = 0.000) has a positive correlation with the practice of any UPA activity. In order for UPA to enhance the household food security status (particularly in terms of dietary diversity) within the peri-urban spheres, an integrated approach (with agricultural land support from government and city planners) together with the diversification of high-value UPA activities by households is paramount. Full article

Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA) has recently come into sharp focus as a valuable source of food for urban populations. High population density and competing land use demands lend a spatiotemporally dynamic and heterogeneous nature to urban and peri-urban croplands. For the provision of information to stakeholders in agriculture and urban planning and management, it is necessary to characterize UPA by means of regular mapping. In this study, partially cloudy, intermittent moderate resolution Landsat images were acquired for an area adjacent to the Tokyo Metropolis, and their Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was computed. Daily MODIS 250 m NDVI and intermittent Landsat NDVI images were then fused, to generate a high temporal frequency synthetic NDVI data set. The identification and distinction of upland croplands from other classes (including paddy rice fields), within the year, was evaluated on the temporally dense synthetic NDVI image time-series, using Random Forest classification. An overall classification accuracy of 91.7% was achieved, with user’s and producer’s accuracies of 86.4% and 79.8%, respectively, for the cropland class. Cropping patterns were also estimated, and classification of peanut cultivation based on post-harvest practices was assessed. Image spatiotemporal fusion provides a means for frequent mapping and continuous monitoring of complex UPA in a dynamic landscape. Full article

Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in West African countries is developing rapidly in response to population growth and changing consumer preferences. Furthermore, UPA offers opportunities to secure income and social integration for the urban poor. However, little is known about household (HH) income security effects of the ongoing shift in UPA land use from crops that do not rely on insect pollinators for fruit development (e.g., sorghum and millet) to pollinator-dependent crops. In our study we developed a Household Vulnerability Index (HVI) for 224 HHs along a rural–urban gradient of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The HVI indicates to which degree total HH revenue could be affected by a decline in insect pollinators. HH specific relative reduction of agricultural revenue ranged from 0 to −0.83, a reduction in HHs’ revenue of up to 83%, depending on the crops’ level of pollinator dependency. Half of the studied HHs (n = 108) showed an HVI of 0 and remained unaffected by a decline in pollinators. Nevertheless, mean HVI was highest for urban HHs; making these HHs most vulnerable for loss of pollination services. As in urban areas changes in insect-mediated pollination services are expected, the development of resilient UPA systems must consider “pollinator-friendly” landscape management. Full article

Urbanization and achieving sustainable agriculture are both major societal challenges. By reducing food miles and connecting people with nature, food cultivation in cities has several major advantages. However, due to further urban development (peri-) urban agriculture (UPA) is under threat. To strengthen UPA, we argue for considering UPA as a nature-based solution (NbS) supporting systemic approaches for societal challenges. However, academic knowledge on UPA’s contribution to various societal challenges of urbanization is still fragmented. This study addresses the gap by conducting a systemic literature review, incorporating 166 academic articles focusing on the global north. The results of the review show that UPA contributes to ten key societal challenges of urbanization: climate change, food security, biodiversity and ecosystem services, agricultural intensification, resource efficiency, urban renewal and regeneration, land management, public health, social cohesion, and economic growth. The value of UPA is its multifunctionality in providing social, economic and environmental co-benefits and ecosystem services. When implementing UPA, social, institutional, economic, technical, geographical, and ecological drivers and constraints need to be considered. To upscale UPA successfully, the study develops an integrative assessment framework for evaluating the implementation and impact efficiency of UPA. This framework should be tested based on the example of edible cities. Full article