Is a City Also a Garden?

Every day in developing countries, thousands of individuals and families migrate from the countryside to cities in pursuit of economic opportunities and a better future. But for most, urban realities are harsh: too few jobs, inadequate housing, and a daily struggle simply to survive. Many have responded by bringing rural survival skills to the city. On rooftops and in window boxes, on roadsides, riverbanks, and vacant lots, they are growing food to feed their families and to sell.

For 20 years, IDRC-sponsored researchers have been at the forefront of a movement to encourage and expand urban agriculture (UA). Key is eliminating outdated bylaws and restrictive regulations and helping urban farmers find and share growing spaces, as well as cooperate to process and market their crops. Through more than 90 research projects in 40 countries over the past decade, IDRC has helped the cities of the South develop urban agriculture policies and methods that are increasing the food supply, raising income levels, and protecting health — and at the same time improving management of urban waste, water, and land.

A UA Pioneer

Senior Program Specialist Luc Mougeot, recognized internationally as a leading UA expert, joined IDRC in 1989 and has focused on UA since 1992. Luc, who holds a PhD in geography, brought to IDRC extensive Latin American research experience in urban housing and settlement patterns, informal employment in cities, and urban uses of energy. He says, “From the beginning, I’ve been interested in three vectors of change in urbanization: housing, informal employment, and UA.”

It has been gratifying for Mougeot to help UA research grow from a small number of relatively isolated projects to a worldwide movement supported by a growing number of regional and international networks. “I’m grateful to IDRC for having taken the risk of supporting programming on a topic that was so new and unproven, and sustaining that commitment,” he says. “And I’m grateful to my colleagues who rallied under this theme and applied their expertise to broaden and deepen the agenda.”

RUAF: The Power of Cooperation

Mougeot cites one project, the Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF) Foundation, as a particularly successful example of international cooperation and synergy. Co-funded by IDRC and the Dutch NGO, ETC International Group, RUAF is a global network offering resources such as a UA magazine published in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese, databases of UA contacts and bibliographical information, workshops and electronic conferences, and a website (www.ruaf.org). “RUAF has created a means for UA participants to communicate about their innovations and successes,” Mougeot says. “It’s helping to rally local governments, professional associations, research institutes, NGOs, and agencies like the World Health Organization and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. It’s helping move UA more quickly into the mainstream.”

As Luc Mougeot suggests, UA is rapidly gaining acceptance as a key means of addressing urban poverty issues. Many universities in the South now include UA in their curriculum, creating a cadre of UA professionals. And UA was on the agenda of the Third World Urban Forum (WUF) in Vancouver, June 19-23, 2006.

For More Information

Research that Matters

How IDRC-supported research is addressing development challenges and making a difference in the lives of people in the South.

Feeding the Sustainable City 2006 Thanks to pioneering research initially led by IDRC, many Southern cities are now re-examining their attitudes to urban agriculture. The challenge they face is how to control agricultural activity so that it can benefit the urban farmers and the rest of the city’s population.

More Research that Matters

IDRC Links

Guidelines for Municipal Policy-making on Urban Agriculture (2003)

 

Growing Better Cities: Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Development, an overview of UA, results of IDRC-supported research, and the important lessons that have been learned

External Links

Third World Urban Forum (WUF3)

Urban Agriculture Notes: non-profit society promoting urban food production and environmental conservation

Urban Harvest:  worldwide network of 16 food and environmental research centres

Food for the Cities: a UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) site offering information and technical guidance on securing urban food supplies

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