Urban agriculture in the developing world: a review

Abstract

The year 2007 marked a critical event in the world history. For the first time, more than half of the world population now lives in cities. In many developing countries, the urbanization process goes along with increasing urban poverty and polluted environment, growing food insecurity and malnutrition, especially for children, pregnant and lactating women; and increasing unemployment. Urban agriculture represents an opportunity for improving food supply, health conditions, local economy, social integration, and environmental sustainability altogether. Urban agriculture is present throughout the world in a diversity of farming systems. Urban dwellers ranging 25-30 % are involved worldwide in the agro-food sector. Urban agriculture will gain in recognition for its benefits and services because urban population and rural-urban migration are increasing. The actual scarcity of knowledge on urban agriculture has somehow hindered the relevance of this activity. Here, we review the social, cultural, technical, economic, environmental, and political factors affecting urban agriculture with examples taken in East Asia, South America, or East Africa. We discuss the definition, benefits, and limitations of urban agriculture. Food security benefit of urban agriculture is evidenced by 100-200 million urban farmers worldwide providing the city markets with fresh horticultural goods. Urban agriculture favors social improvement since the poors spend up to 85 % of their income in food purchase and most urban farmers belong to poorest populations. Sociologically urban farming favors both social inclusion and reduction of gender inequalities, as 65 % of urban farmers are women. Urban agriculture has ecological benefits by reducing the city waste, improving urban biodiversity and air quality, and overall reducing the environmental impact related to both food transport and storage. The production of horticultural goods shows the main benefits of urban agriculture. Fruit and vegetable crops give high yields, up to 50 kg m −2 year −1 , a more efficient use of agricultural inputs, high added value, and rapidly perishable products that can easily substitute the rural production in the local market. Urban horticulture is the most competitive branch of urban farming due to the high cost of urban land and with the need of high water-and fertilizer-use efficiency. Traditional urban horticulture systems are classified in four types: allotment and family gardens, simplified extensive systems, shifting cultivation, and intensive systems. We describe also innovative systems including organoponics and simplified soilless cultures.

Urban vegetable for food security in cities. A review

“…New cropping technologies have been developed in order to address these issues and make horticulture more sustainable. These cultivation systems are very intensive and are usually found in urban areas with limited cultivation space (Orsini et al 2013). …”

“…Smit et al (1996) estimated that about 800 million people were engaged in urban agriculture and that 200 millions of these were market producers. These data are, however, according to Orsini et al (2013) likely overestimated, since they were mainly derived from estimates by the Urban Agriculture Network based on individual experiences and observations and extrapolation from data. The Food and Agriculture Organization, for instance, evaluates in a more conservative way that 100 million people are estimated to earn parts of their income directly from urban farming (FAO 1996).…”

“…However, its contribution to economy should not be underestimated (Mok et al 2014). According to Orsini et al (2013), urban agriculture represents an opportunity for improving food supply, health conditions, local economy, social integration, and environmental sustainability altogether.…”

“…One of the main benefits of urban agriculture worldwide is the production of horticultural goods. According to Orsini et al (2013), urban horticulture is the most competitive branch of urban farming. Due to the high cost of urban land, vegetables with their high water and fertilizer efficiency are more profitable than growing other crops.…”

“…This makes urban horticulture a relatively quick responsive system especially after a breakdown of the food supply chains through trade isolation as seen in Cuba (Hamilton et al 2013). Dubbeling et al (2010) and Orsini et al (2013) report an achievable yield of up to 50 kg a year on only 1 m 2 with fruit and vegetable cultivation. In comparison to other crops, this is a very high yield.…”