Abstract
As cities expand, so do the food needs of urban families. The situation of the urban poor is precarious in the present context of volatile food prices and the financial, fuel and economic crises. The urban poor, often located in the most vulnerable parts of cities and lacking the capacity to adapt to climate-related impacts, will be hit hardest. The challenges associated with supporting the urban poor demand urgent and adequate responses from city and national authorities and international organisations. Urban policies need to incorporate food security considerations and focus more on building cities that are more resilient to crises. There is growing recognition of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) as an important strategy for climate change adaptation and mitigation, to a lesser extent. Metropolitan, municipal and other local government institutions can play a proactive and coordinating role in enhancing urban food security and cities resilience by:
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1.
Integrating urban food security/UPA into climate change adaptation and disaster management strategies
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2.
Maintaining and managing agriculture projects as part of the urban and peri-urban green infrastructure
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3.
Identifying open urban spaces prone to floods and landslides and protecting or developing these as permanent UPA/multi-functional areas
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4.
Integrating UPA into comprehensive city water(shed) management plans
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Including UPA in social housing and slum upgrading programmes
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6.
Developing a municipal urban agriculture and food security policy and programme.
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Notes
- 1.
“UN Agency calls for urban agriculture” WMO press release December 7, 2007.
- 2.
In water-scarce countries (especially in the Near East and North Africa, South Africa, Pakistan, and large parts of India and China) and in densely populated areas, growing competition between industrial, energy and domestic uses of water and agricultural use of water can be observed. When a country faces water scarcity, central and local governments tend to restrict agricultural water use in favour of urban industrial, energy and domestic uses, with important negative consequences for national food production (UN Water 2007). Meanwhile cities produce increasing quantities of wastewater that to a large extent is routinely disposed in rivers, lakes or the sea, with important negative effects on public health and the urban ecology, including the contamination of groundwater and pollution of fresh water bodies down streams of cities. Along with more efficient water use in agriculture, the productive use of treated urban wastewater and the use of rainwater have been identified as a sustainable way to produce food for the growing cities.
- 3.
Wastewater, excreta and urban organic waste are an accessible source of plant nutrients, such as phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium. The world’s resources of readily available phosphorus are limited and will run out in 25 years (Rosemarin 2004). Nutrient recycling will reduce the need for artificial fertilisers and the energy needed for producing it.
- 4.
In many cities attempts to decrease pressure on wood energy (fuel wood and charcoal) by subsidizing gas or electric technologies have not succeeded. The prognostic for many regions, such as in Africa, is that wood energy will continue to be the main source of energy for cooking and heating of the majority of their population.
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These areas include flood zones, land under power lines, buffer zones and land reserves for future use.
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Assistance with infrastructure development may consist of storage spaces, packaging sheds, or green houses, while equipments and inputs may consist of irrigation equipment, quality seed, seedlings or young stock at cost or subsidised prices.
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Dubbeling, M., de Zeeuw, H. (2011). Urban Agriculture and Climate Change Adaptation: Ensuring Food Security Through Adaptation. In: Otto-Zimmermann, K. (eds) Resilient Cities. Local Sustainability, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0785-6_44
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