What are the impacts of urban agriculture programs on food security in low and middle-income countries: a systematic review

Korth, Marcel; Stewart, Ruth; Langer, Laurenz; Madinga, Nolizwe; Silva, Natalie Rebelo Da; Zaranyika, Hazel; Rooyen, Carina van; Wet, Thea de

doi:10.1186/2047-2382-3-21

Cited by 46 publications

(40 citation statements)

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“…In addition, as Abu Hatab et al (2019b) have argued, our findings show that there is the need for urban and rural agriculture policies to be conceived in a complementary manner rather than treated as mutually exclusive because synergies could be harnessed in specific contexts as an effective poverty reduction strategy. Lastly, since urban FS goes beyond food self-provisioning (Crush and Frayne 2011;Korth et al 2014), the problem of urban food insecurity can only be comprehensively tackled using a broad-based approach that addresses not only challenges facing UA but also access to decent jobs and food markets in general.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We note that the relatively higher per capita incomes received by UA nonparticipating households in the two cities did not necessarily translate into better FS. This suggests that as others (Korth et al 2014) have cautioned, relying on food markets alone may not guarantee household FS. This result is not overly surprising because, besides income, food access by urban households is also conditioned by food prices and spatial proximity to markets (Crush and Frayne 2011).…”

Section: Descriptive Analysismentioning

confidence: 95%

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The geography of agriculture participation and food security in a small and a medium-sized city in Ghana

2020

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The debate about the contribution of urban agriculture to urban household food security has not considered the possible differential effects by geography of production activities, focusing either on urban household's participation in agriculture irrespective of where the activity takes place, or restricting participation to production within urban and peri-urban areas, or more narrowly, production within build-up urban spaces. Using a sample of 2004 households in a small and a medium-sized city in Ghana, this article contributes by disentangling urban household's participation in agriculture by geography of production activities and the implications for the food security of urban households. We find no evidence from our sample that participation in agriculture in general matters for the food security of urban households. However, urbanites who produced food in both urban and rural areas had better food security in the medium-sized city.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Descriptive Analysismentioning

confidence: 95%

The geography of agriculture participation and food security in a small and a medium-sized city in Ghana

2020

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“…Similarly, while Zezza and Tasciotti (2010) report encouraging results that indicate that engagement in farming in urban areas is positively associated with greater diet diversity in developing countries, Korth et al (2014) state that the research currently available does not allow for any conclusions to be made on whether or not urban agriculture initiatives contribute to food security. Black et al (2008) also note that interventions to diversify diets by enhancement of agriculture production have only been implemented at small scale and have not been adequately assessed.…”

Section: Agricultural Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution and Impact of EU Aid for Food and Nutrition Security: A Review

Cockx

Francken

2016

SSRN Journal

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractIn the aftermath of the world food price crisis, the issue of food and nutrition security has received a high level of political attention and the international donor community has repeatedly underlined its commitment to combat hunger in the world. In order to enhance the effectiveness of the international community's efforts in addressing the widespread problem of malnutrition, we need to improve our knowledge on what activities donors are currently engaging in and which interventions have been shown to be successful. This paper offers both an overview of the aid for food and nutrition security landscape and how it has changed and an extensive review of the available evidence on the impact of a wide array of interventions aimed at addressing all four dimensions of food and nutrition security; availability, access, utilization and stability. We find that despite the renewed interest and elevated levels of funding for food and nutrition security assistance in developing countries, the empirical evidence base for the effectiveness of these interventions in improving beneficiaries' food and nutrition security -although in several cases promising -is weak. In particular, the question whether different interventions improve the quality of food consumption and consequently nutrient intake and status, remains largely unanswered. Moreover, few studies assess longer-term effects and there exists relatively little rigorous evidence that compares different interventions. It is therefore strongly recommended to undertake additional research to improve the evidence base as this would allow researchers and policy makers to establish the type of approaches that improve food and nutrition security in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. Finally, in order to facilitate this process, there is a need for a clear and uniform definition of food and nutrition security assistance on the one hand as well as agreed upon, comprehensive indicators on the other hand.JEL Codes F35, F53, I380, O12, O13, O15.

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“…The potential of own-grown urban food production (i.e. recreational or non-commercial gardening) as a local solution to a global problem has attracted increasing interest in recent years 5,7-15 , driven by a multitude of ecological, sustainability, social, recreational, therapeutic, mental and physical health, and well-being benefits to local areas and residents 3,11,14,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] .Whilst urban agriculture and own-growing have attracted considerable interest and advocacy, systematic evaluation of their proposed benefits remains limited 13,[36][37][38][39] . Quantitative estimates of actual and potential urban food production are key to such evaluations, but are rare 34,[40][41][42] .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whilst urban agriculture and own-growing have attracted considerable interest and advocacy, systematic evaluation of their proposed benefits remains limited 13,[36][37][38][39] . Quantitative estimates of actual and potential urban food production are key to such evaluations, but are rare 34,[40][41][42] .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating food production in an urban landscape

Grafius

Edmondson

Norton

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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There is increasing interest in urban food production for reasons of food security, environmental sustainability, social and health benefits. In developed nations urban food growing is largely informal and localised, in gardens, allotments and public spaces, but we know little about the magnitude of this production. Here we couple own-grown crop yield data with garden and allotment areal surveys and urban fruit tree occurrence to provide one of the first estimates for current and potential food production in a UK urban setting. Current production is estimated to be sufficient to supply the urban population with fruit and vegetables for about 30 days per year, while the most optimistic model results suggest that existing land cultivated for food could supply over half of the annual demand. Our findings provide a baseline for current production whilst highlighting the potential for change under the scaling up of cultivation on existing land.Food security and agricultural sustainability are global issues of rising concern 1 . This is driven by the challenge of feeding a growing population from a finite and diminishing global soil resource 2,3 , and by the spatial disconnection between agricultural production and the urban systems in which an ever increasing proportion of that population live 4,5 . We expect changes at relatively local scales to be important in meeting these challenges 6 . The potential of own-grown urban food production (i.e. recreational or non-commercial gardening) as a local solution to a global problem has attracted increasing interest in recent years 5,7-15 , driven by a multitude of ecological, sustainability, social, recreational, therapeutic, mental and physical health, and well-being benefits to local areas and residents 3,11,14,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] .Whilst urban agriculture and own-growing have attracted considerable interest and advocacy, systematic evaluation of their proposed benefits remains limited 13,[36][37][38][39] . Quantitative estimates of actual and potential urban food production are key to such evaluations, but are rare 34,[40][41][42] . This stems from both the relatively recent interest in the subject and the specific challenges associated with obtaining such estimates. Nonetheless if the role of city-wide urban food production is to be assessed, and its relationships to urban form and to other ecosystem services are to be understood 35,43 , such data are crucial.Estimating urban food production is challenging, as it is spread over many highly fragmented and usually small growing spaces, managed by many different users growing a wide variety of often finely intermingled crops. Further, much of the consumption is direct, not passing through any transaction which would generate systematic records 40 . For example, in the United Kingdom, urban food production predominantly occurs in either private residential gardens or communally administered allotment sites. Allotments are generally managed by local authorities or o...

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What are the impacts of urban agriculture programs on food security in low and middle-income countries: a systematic review

Cited by 46 publications

References 17 publications

The geography of agriculture participation and food security in a small and a medium-sized city in Ghana

The geography of agriculture participation and food security in a small and a medium-sized city in Ghana

Evolution and Impact of EU Aid for Food and Nutrition Security: A Review

Estimating food production in an urban landscape

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