Enhancing Food Security by Institutionalizing Collaborative Food Alliances in Urban Areas

Abstract

Narrowing the food supply-demand gaps between urban and rural areas within a regional space has today become a serious challenge due to the growing urban population. Resultantly, urban markets are increasingly being dominated by industrial food chains, despite their negative socio-environmental impacts. To address this issue, this paper discusses the need and significance of ‘Collaborative Food Alliances’ (CFAs), which promote the direct supply of food products from rural farmers to urban residents through improved producer–consumer relationships. Based on the literature survey, this study underlines that the current CFAs are confronted with several challenges including the small scale of functioning and limited financing. While the current research on CFAs is focused on theoretical place-based studies, this paper argues that institutionalization of CFAs at a large scale is highly important for enhancing food security in urban areas. It mainly deliberates on two key aspects: (a) The process of institutionalizing CFAs and (b) A feasible financing mechanism to support CFAs. This paper emphasizes that urban local governments have a central role to play in institutionalizing CFAs, either as a lead agency or as a facilitator. It concludes with specific suggestions on three key determinants of multi-stakeholder engagement, financial constraints and policy coordination at a regional level.

COVID-19 Lockdown, Food Systems and Urban–Rural Partnership: Case of Nagpur, India

“…However, the conventional urban-rural food linkages are increasingly stressed due to the fast-growing urban population, rapid urbanization, industrialization, etc. [17,49]. Lately, the industrial supply chains have started to dominate the food markets by maintaining a steady supply of processed food with higher standards [18].…”

“…As such, there is a need for redundancies in the local food systems. Sukhwani et al [17] explained how improved producer-consumer relationships can serve for narrowing the food supply demand gaps between urban and rural areas at regional level. In reference to the existing best practices, the local governments should adopt locally-relevant strategies for strengthening the food systems in long-term.…”

“…Further, food prices are also reported to be increasing in cities around the world, as food supply from rural areas is disrupted due to the mobility restrictions [14] (p. 6). Cities have traditionally been dependent on areas outside their physical boundaries (mostly surrounding rural and peri-urban areas) to meet their food demands [15][16][17][18], but the sudden transport restrictions and shortage of manpower have presently disrupted the urban-rural food supply chains (from harvesting crops to food distribution) worldwide. While the jobs and livelihoods of food supply chain actors are at significant risk, the government mandated lockdowns are also found to be influencing the consumer behavior towards food along with their food priorities and lifestyles [19].…”

COVID‐19 and consumer behavior: Food stockpiling in the U.S. market

“…Nonetheless, empirical work in this regard is still limited. Sukhwani et al (2019) study the panic buying behavior in India after it has led to rural-urban food supply chain disruptions to understand better and mitigate this problem. The study reveals that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, people are primarily concerned about food security when strict measures such as closed borders and transportation restrictions are adopted.…”