Linking food and land systems for sustainable peri-urban agriculture in Bangkok Metropolitan Region

Abstract

h i g h l i g h t s• A geographic approach helps in a holistic understanding of peri-urban food systems.• Food-related activities occurred at multiple spatial scales.• Wet markets served as a hub and spread across wider areas than supermarkets.• An increase in wet markets and supermarkets was associated with land use change.• Connection between local farmers and nearby wet markets was limited. a b s t r a c tWe applied a geographic approach to the analysis of current food-related behaviors in peri-urban Bangkok, Thailand, to better understand potential for building a local food system for sustainable periurban agriculture during a period of rapid urbanization. We addressed three main working questions:(1) Do traditional wet markets keep functioning as an important hub for vegetable and fruit food systems under the influence of modern supermarkets? (2) How "local" are the current food-related behaviors of multiple actors? (3) How do the distributions of food-related actors and their environments change in this period of rapid urbanization in peri-urban areas? We combined field based interviews of multiple actors, including farming and non-farming households, wet market retailers, and food shop owners with a GIS analysis of food-related activities and land use changes. We found that the traditional food system played an important role as both a food source for households and a selling destination for farmers. Wet market, a hub in traditional food system, spread across peri-urban areas and kept increasing under urbanization. There was, however, little connection between farmers and nearby wet markets in the same district and it constricted positive feedbacks between producers and consumers in peri-urban areas. Promoting communication between farmers and nearby retailers will contribute to better governance of a local food system and subsequent long-term conservation of peri-urban farmlands.

Relationship between Population and Agricultural Land in Amasya

“…We put land-use planning under protection, but population movements continue to threaten these planning approaches. As the general demand of population increases continues to concentrate in and around cities [2,8], it will reduce urban agricultural areas. The roles of growing urban areas in countries where the migration of most of population is seen and land-use development of cities are expected to increase [2,9].…”

“…Rapid urbanization puts serious pressure on agricultural land and natural areas [1]. Urbanization has greatly reduced agricultural areas [2]. According to the OECD [3], cities are the most important sources of major problems for rural areas [4].…”

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“…Furthermore, from the second half of the 20th century onwards, the global food system has detached production from consumption in both space and time [16,17]. Relocation of food production has led city populations, who are no longer reliant on their regional farmland or dependent on the seasonality and singularity of local foodstuffs, to become the main consumers [18,19]. This has led to a homogenization of the citizen's diet [20], entrusting food security to agroindustrial businesses [21][22][23].…”

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