Resource Guide on URBAN AGRICULTURE prepared for the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (ACP-EU) (CTA) by ETC Ecoculture Resource Guide on Urban Agriculture July 1998 Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (ACP-EU) (CTA) P.O. Box 380 6700 AJ Wageningen, The Netherlands Phone: +31 317 467100 Fax: + 31 317 460067 E-mail: [email protected] Homepage: http://www.cta.nl ETC Netherlands Urban Agriculture Programme P.O. Box 64 NL-3830 AB Leusden, The Netherlands Phone: +31 33 4943086 Fax: +31 33 4940791 E-mail: [email protected] Editors: Wietse Bruinsma, Marielle Dubbeling Lay-out: Manuela Verweel, Arthur Eyck Cover photo by: Hoering ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This Resource Guide could not have been made without the collaboration of a number of institutions that assisted ETC in identifying resource persons and organisations and their addresses. In particular, we would like to thank: - The International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Toronto, Canada - The Urban Agriculture Network (TUAN), Washington, USA - Tree City, Illertissen, Germany - WASTE, Gouda, The Netherlands The study, the publication and the Website version were financed by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA). Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (ACP-EU) The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) was established in 1983 under the Lomé Convention between the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States and the European Union Member States. CTA's tasks are to develop and provide services that improve access to information for agricultural and rural development, and to strengthen the capacity of ACP countries to produce, acquire, exchange and utilise information in these areas. CTA's programmes are organised around three principal themes: strengthening facilities at ACP information centres, promoting contact and exchange of experience among CTA's partners and providing information on demand. CTA, Postbus 380, 6700 AJ Wageningen, The Netherlands ETC Ecoculture ETC Ecoculture is a member of the ETC International Group, an independent, not-for-profit but market-oriented organisation, which executes programmes and projects, implements studies, gives policy advice and organises training. ETC operates offices in the Netherlands, UK, India, East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda), India, the Andes (Peru, Bolivia), Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. ETC’s main objectives have been to encourage and support local initiatives aimed at sustainable development, to strengthen local institutions and the participation of local stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of adequate policies and programmes for sustainable rural and urban development. ETC Ecoculture has a strong record in natural resource management, low external input agriculture, sustainable energy, and integrated land use systems (both in rural and urban environments). ETC Ecoculture, PO Box 64, 3830 AB Leusden, The Netherlands i FOREWORD Food production in cities has a long tradition in many countries and the UNDP has estimated that urban agriculture produces between 15 and 20 % of world’s food. Urban planners commonly consider gardening and livestock keeping as merely ‘hang-overs ’ of rural habits - as a marginal activity of little economic importance, or as a health risk and a source of pollution that has to be curtailed. Such biases, sustained by the limited exposure of policy makers and planners to information on urban agriculture, have resulted in important legal restrictions on urban agriculture. These are often among the major constraints on its development. Among the many problems confronting cities are growing urban malnutrition and related ill-health for low-income citizens, and the remorseless expansion in the quantities of waste produced. Such issues force us to re-examine present approaches to urban food security and sustainable urban development, and to consider again the opportunities for integrating agricultural production functions in urban land use planning. One of the bottlenecks for the development of urban agriculture is the lack of access of local practitioners to relevant information and expertise on the various aspects of urban agriculture. This is the reason why CTA and ETC have produced this Resource Guide on urban agriculture. The potential of urban agriculture Various international development agencies have developed initiatives to support the implementation of urban and peri-urban agricultural projects and the integration of urban agriculture into the policies of national and local governments. These organisations have concluded that there are many arguments for promoting peri-urban and urban agricultural production and that urban agriculture has the potential to make a substantial contribution to solving persistent urban problems: Urban food security: improved nutrition and health Analysis of trends regarding urban food systems reveals that urban food security strategies can and should aim at maintaining and enhancing a certain degree of local production of food. This local production of food, and associated local markets increase the food security of the poor by making food locally available, and at lower prices, and by improving the nutritional balance of the family diet. Creation of better conditions for peri-urban and urban families to produce and market vegetables, fruits, livestock products and fish, can positively affect the nutrition and health of vulnerable urban groups, especially in situations where women gain control over the destination of the produce and revenues from sales. Urban environmental management; waste as a resource; energy conservation; public health Urban agriculture can contribute to improving the urban environment (or city ecology) by using urban organic solid wastes and waste water as a productive resource. In 1992, it was estimated that at least one tenth of the world’s population consumed food produced on waste water. Increasing water scarcity forces people to make optimal use of available water and to enhance re-cycling and re-use, while attempting to limit the health risks. Urban forestry and agriculture also contribute to the greening of the city, improving the micro-climate and the air quality, while preventing erosion and flooding by the planting of bare lands and steep slopes. Urban agriculture conserves energy by shortening the distance between the points of production and consumption of food; reduces storage and transport losses; and leads to urban production of fuelwood, thus substituting other energy sources and reducing the pressure on forests. Income and employment creation for the urban poor ii Urban production of food reduces food costs in view of the savings in transport, and storage, and because less middlemen and marketing costs may be involved. This improves the accessibility of food for poor urban families. Since the largest component of household expenditure is spent on food (low-income households usually spend over 50-60 % of their income on basic food and drink), any savings on food expenditure translates into a significant portion of the family income becoming available for other, non-food expenditure. If urban agriculture results in surpluses that are sold, the resulting addition to the income can be sizeable. Urban farming provides a source of employment not only for urban farmers themselves, but also for people operating in linked micro-enterprises: input and output industries and services like herding, collection and selling of manure, vermiculture and the production of compost, processing of agricultural produce, and street vending of food. Risks of urban agriculture The risks that may be associated with the promotion of urban agriculture must be recognised. Food produced in or near cities may be detrimental to human health if soils or irrigation water are contaminated by industries (heavy metals), if untreated urban waste water is used for irrigation of food crops or fresh solid organic wastes are used as fertiliser, or if hygiene is lacking in the processing and marketing of food. Traffic may have a direct polluting effect on urban crops (lead contamination). Cultivated areas and livestock in cities may attract or provide breeding grounds for rodents and flies and thus can contribute to the spread of diseases they may carry if proper precautions are not taken. Urban agriculture may contaminate local water sources if high input levels of fertilisers and pesticides are used. Neighbours may complain of the dust, smell and noise created by urban farms. However, such risks can be prevented and managed by appropriate urban policies, including the provision of adequate extension services to urban farmers. Experience has indicated that urban farming does not stop because city policies prohibit such activities. Hence, it would better to shift from prohibitive regulations to policies oriented towards managing the risks involved and creating the right conditions for safe food production in urban and peri-urban areas. Often the question is raised as to whether urban food production competes with rural food production. Experience suggests that this is rarely the case since segmented markets and product and price differentiation move against such an adverse rural-urban competition. However, more research into this question would be useful. Resource guide on urban agriculture CTA and ETC have produced this Resource Guide in order to respond to the present lack of access of local practitioners to relevant information and expertise on urban agriculture.