No. 42, Fall/Winter 1997
Urban Agriculture in Drylands
compiled and annotated by Katherine Waser
"Broad appreciation of the benefits of urban agriculture is urgently needed to overcome both traditional and modern biases. Public information...is perhaps the most effective tool to transform the industry from its cottage status into a major instrument in the battle against hunger and poverty." --Urban agriculture: Food, jobs and sustainable cities, |
Introduction(Back to top)Starting (in a small way) with this issue of the Arid Lands Newsletter, I am beginning to expand the focus of each of these topic-specific annotated lists to include not only web sites but also books, journal issues/articles, and other resources that have come to my attention as being particularly relevant to an issue's theme. (The "Selected Resources of Interest" column will also continue to be a part of each issue, but from now on will focus on resources NOT directly pertinent to the current issue's theme.) As always, this annotated list is not intended to be exhaustive--I wouldn't even go so far as to call it comprehensive. I have tried to focus on the best, most complete, and (usually) most recent resources on the topic that I have been able to identify and obtain for review. I have not included resources which I may have heard of, but which I haven't actually seen for myself. Any significant omissions are therefore my responsibility and do not necessarily reflect on the quality of other resources not mentioned herein. Urban agriculture is an age-old practice, but it has only lately begun to be considered as a potentially vital component of sustainable development. Therefore, I was only able to find a handful of web sites dedicated solely to this topic, and these are listed first. Apart from that, however, I was able to locate several individual online articles that provide interesting information on various aspects of urban agriculture. Because this issue of the Arid Lands Newsletter focuses predominantly on urban agriculture in drylands/developing countries, I have not included web sites on community gardening in this list. However, there are many such sites which may be of interest to readers of this issue; these can be located by using any of the major Web search engines. All URLs and other contact addresses are current as of publication date. In addition to the web sites listed below, please check the end of each article included herein for links and/or other resources pertinent to the specific topic of that article. Web Sites(Back to top)Cities feeding people (IDRC's Urban Agriculture Initiative) (http://www.idrc.ca/cfp/) This web site is a must for anyone interested in the subject of urban agriculture in drylands (or anywhere else, for that matter). Canada's International Development Research Centre initiated its program of applied, multidisciplinary research on food security and urban policy issues in the South as part of its 1993-97 corporate program framework. This site allows program team members and their partners to exchange information and documents, discuss issues of interest, and share opinions on urban agriculture research. Currently, the site contains online reports from IDRC's various UA-related programs; information on new projects; links to other UA networks and other UA-related web sites; and more. The site is clearly organized and designed to be accessible to all types of browsers. In short, this is an excellent resource that warrants close examination by anyone interested in this topic. Urban agriculture notes (by City Farmer) Urban and peri-urban agriculture (FAO) Online Articles(Back to top)Urban agriculture's increasing role in sustainable agriculture (1994) (http://www.igc.apc.org/wsaala/issue5.html) This online report comprises the text of a presentation made by Mr. Jac Smit, President of the The Urban Agriculture Network (TUAN), at a meeting of the Washington, D.C. branch of the World Sustainable Agriculture Association. Mr. Smit is one of the foremost proponents of urban agriculture, and this presentation provides a good summary of the potential for urban agriculture to become a crucial element in the development both of sustainable agriculture and of sustainable urban environments. Accesssible to text-only browsers. Editor's note: Mr. Smit is a prolific author and has produced several articles, both online and in hardcopy. You will find many of them on the Cities Feeding People web site, cited above. Another online article by Mr. Smit is: An interesting hardcopy article, co-written by Mr. Smit and Joe Nasr, is: IIED 3 Endsleigh Street London @C1H 0DD United Kingdom
City women farm for food and cash (1993) Time to help
the city farmers of Africa (1996) Books(Back to top)Urban agriculture: Food, jobs and sustainable cities By Jac Smit, Annu Ratta, and Joe Nasr New York: United Nations Development Programme. 1996, 302 pp. Available from: UNDP Urban Development Unit DC1-2080 One United Nations Plaza New York, NY 10017 U.S.A. Fax: +1 (212) 906-6471 This report, Volume One in the UNDP Publication Series for Habitat II, presents the most comprehensive picture to date of urban agriculture in Asia, Africa and Latin America (reports on other geographic regions, where available, are also mentioned). While it does not gloss over the potential problems of UA, it makes an overwhelmingly strong case that the potential benefits of urban agriculture far outweigh such potential problems. Aimed at a wide audience ranging from government policy makers and international agency staff to agricultural producers and urban managers, the book is well organized and highly readable. It is divided into four major parts:
Anyone who is interested in this topic should read this book. Cities feeding people: An examination of urban agriculture in East AfricaBR>
by A.G. Egziabher, D. Lee-Smith, D.G. Maxwell, P.A. Memon, L.J.A. Mougeot, and C.J. Sawio. 5369 Canotek Road, Unit 1 Ottawa, ON, Canada K1J 9J3 Tel: +1 (613) 745-2665 Fax: +1 (613) 745-7660 This book, which is also available in French, is an outgrowth of IDRC-organized panels held at the 1993 Canadian Association for African Studies (CAAS) conference, held on the theme of "Urban and Community Development." These panels brought together scholars working on urban agriculture issues in several East African countries to discuss their research. Following the informative foreword and introductory essay, the book presents four well-documented studies (all based on dissertation research), each focusing on a different aspect of urban agriculture:
Food from dryland gardens: An ecological, nutritional, and social approach to small-scale household food production
|
About the Arid Lands Newsletter