The UN predicts that over the next twenty-five years nearly all population growth will be in the cities of the developing world. At current rates, sixty percent of the world’s total population will live in cities by 2030. As the cities grow, so does the number of urban poor. Unemployment, hunger, and malnutrition are commonplace. In the big city, most of any cash income the poor might bring home goes to feeding themselves and staying alive; any food that does not have to be bought is a bonus. As a result, more and more people are attempting to grow at least some of their own food to supplement poor diets and meager incomes. But farming in the city — urban agriculture — is too often seen by municipalities as a problem to be eradicated rather than as a part of the solution to making the city and its environment more sustainable.
In fact, urban agriculture has a long history. Throughout the developing world, municipal policymakers are waking to the fact that properly managed agriculture can make a major contribution to a city’s food security. It also has potential to provide employment, improve the environment, and make productive use of vacant spaces within the city. More than twenty years ago, IDRC became the first international agency to formally support research on urban agriculture. This book reviews the research experience of IDRC and its partners, including local governments, into the issues surrounding urban agriculture, with a particular emphasis on the influence that research has had on government policies. It describes the growth of city networks in Africa and Latin America that focus on accommodating urban agriculture and improving the lot of urban food producers. And it offers specific recommendations aimed at helping policymakers at all levels of government to maximize the potential of urban agriculture. The book concludes with a vision of how such policies might transform cities in the near future. This book serves as a focal point for an IDRC thematic Web site on urban agriculture: www.idrc.ca/in_focus_cities. The full text is available online and leads the reader into a virtual web of resources that explores two decades of research into this important issue.
Luc J. A. Mougeot is Senior Program Specialist with IDRC's Special Initiatives Division and is author of Agropolis (2005).
Contents: Foreword -- Paul Taylor, UN-HABITAT; Preface; Acknowledgments; 1. The Issue: Population shift; Food: a basic luxury; Snails and silkworms; Women’s roles; Easing ecological problems; An uncertain existence; Increasing recognition; Cities Feeding People; 2. The Approach: An evolving approach; Cities Feeding People; Building capacity and bridges; Maximizing impact; The way ahead; 3. Experiences from the Field: Blurring the boundaries; Land, people, and policies; Real progress in three African cities; City partners in Latin America; Waste, water, and environment; Closing the nutrient loop; Mapping waste supply and demand; Reducing waste, feeding the poor; Managing municipal wastewater; Reducing the pollution load; Growing gardens with greywater; Food security and incomes; Lessons learned; 4. Learning from Experience: Land and space; Waste disposal and health; Food and nutrition; 5. Recommendations: Municipal governments should start with the right question: What can UA do for my city (not what can my city do for it)?; Use UA to make suitable vacant city space productive for all; Include UA as an urban land use category and as an urban economic function in your planning system; Use a participatory policy-making approach; Experiment with temporary occupancy permits (TOPs) for urban producers using private and public open spaces; Support the organization of poor urban producers to manage UA in more and better ways; Bring the needed research in tune with your policy exercise at the earliest opportunity; Reshaping city life; 6. A City of the Future: Fast forward to the year 2025; Back to the present; Appendix 1. Glossary of Terms and Acronyms; Appendix 2. Sources and Resources; The Publisher
Published by IDRC Books Luc J. A. Mougeot July 2006 106 pp., 5 3/4" x 8 3/4", maps and tables.
Growing Better Cities 
Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Development: