Impacts of urban agriculture. Highlights of Urban Harvet research and development, 2003-2006

The articles in this report, which highlight some of the program achievements between 2003 and 2006, also capture the particularities of the urban context. Food and nutrition insecurity are highly correlated with conditions in many rural areas of the developing world.Yet the high cost of food in cities, the restricted access to own food production, unhealthy living conditions suffered by low-income urban families combined with poor diets – including increasing consumption of refined foods – all create urban hot-spots of food and nutrition insecurity.

The articles on biological contamination of irrigation water in Lima and heavy metal contamination in Kampala identify some of these problems and describe potential solutions. The organic wastes in the urban ecosystem carry nutrients which can be used at low or no cost by urban producers. The article on producer schools in Lima describes the way the method has helped producers transform their agriculture towards more ecologically friendly production, using local organic wastes. The Nairobi article talks about the complicated flows of wastes entering and leaving and circulating within Nairobi, and the opportunities these provide for income.

The three articles in the section on Stakeholder and policy dialogue present examples of how it is possible – not easy, but possible – to influence policy processes and organizational change to better integrate agriculture in urban planning and development and by so doing, making cities more sustainable places.