Urban Agriculture: A Pathway for Enhancing Food Security and Poverty Resiliency in Tanzania

Zimbabwe is becoming increasingly urbanized, and with this accelerating process comes a host of socio-economic challenges. Rapid urbanization process has resulted in increase urban food insecurity and malnutrition, especially on the side of tandem increase in urban poverty. Urban poverty and food shortage are taking root in Zimbabwe, as a result increased food production and access becomes critical to achieving major nutritional improvement and addressing food insecurity. In the face of urban food shortages, the present paradigm of rural food production cannot meet the challenges of the new millennium. It is hardly surprising that increasing umbers of urbanites are looking to grow their own food, if only to supplement their family food needs. Food is one of the basic needs and urban agriculture, both legal and illegal, has grown as a consequence of the difficult economic climate. Many urban households lack adequate amounts of foods that are rich in the nutrients needed for health and a productive life. It is against this background of increasing urban poverty that this discussion puts forward some suggestions for promoting urban agriculture. Urban agriculture has diverse economic, social and ecological functions and can be valued as one of the agricultural sectors having enormous potential to contribute to food security in Zimbabwe. In this discussion the role of urban agriculture in improving nutrition and food security is highlighted. Urban areas are becoming more 'modern' in their patterns of consumption than in their patterns of production, and there is a danger that the urban poor will become more and more marginalized while, at the other extreme, a small increasingly wealthy elite develops. The demand for food due to increased urbanization is predicted to grow faster than production resulting in a growing food deficit and insecurity in urban areas. Strategies which foster gender equality in urban food production will impact positively on food production, which may translate into expanded food production base to meet the needs of the growing urban dwellers, who are failing to make ends meet. This means participation of women in urban agriculture on the understanding that they are custodians of food production in many urban communities is recommended. However, challenges associated with urban agriculture need to be addressed to avoid land degradation and pollution in urban areas. Therefore, urban agriculture should be considered as a normal component of agriculture system and urban development, which has the capacity to improve nutrition and food security, as it lends itself to the majority of the urban poor. Greater and more sustained food production from urban agriculture will increase the potential access of the urban household to an adequate diet. It is envisaged that urban agriculture will be the new approach to satisfying urban food demands, however best provided incentives to urban farmers are credited by formulating policy fair to urban food producers. In the face of this bleak situation, major efforts are required to promote urban agriculture in addressing the nutritional needs and the perpetual food insecurity challenges in urban areas of Zimbabwe. On the other hand, given the economic, social and ecological advantages of urban farming it is arguably deserves even greater attention than before.

FOOD FOR THE CITIES: URBAN AGRICULTURE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Objective – This study aims to analyze the contribution of urban and peri-urban agriculture in mitigating food insecurity in Brazil, considering the relevance of the National Program for Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (2018) and the recent Law No. 14,935/2024. The research seeks to map and analyze academic studies on the subject, highlighting the main contributions of community gardens to sustainable development. Methodology – The research adopted a qualitative state-of-the-art approach, analyzing theses and dissertations available in the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD) published between 2020 and 2024. Seven studies were identified and analyzed, considering their contributions to urban and community agriculture. Originality/relevance – The study fills a gap by linking urban agriculture to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting its role in poverty eradication (SDG 2), education promotion (SDG 4), economic growth (SDG 8), and sustainable cities (SDG 11). Additionally, it proposes strategies to strengthen the implementation of public policies focused on urban agriculture. Results – The analysis revealed that community gardens have great potential to contribute to food and nutritional security while generating jobs and income. However, challenges were identified, such as the need for more effective public policies, incentives for local consumption, and strengthening of community initiatives. The research suggests that state and municipal governments without specific legislation on urban agriculture develop local policies aligned with national legislation. Theoretical/methodological contributions – The study contributes to the debate on food security and sustainable development by consolidating knowledge on urban agriculture from recent academic literature. It also proposes that future research analyze the contributions of urban agriculture to vulnerable populations registered in the Federal Government's Unified Registry. Social and environmental contributions – The research reinforces the importance of urban agriculture as a strategy for social and economic inclusion, promoting environmental sustainability and agroecological education. Encouraging community gardens and policies supporting local consumption can strengthen food supply networks and reduce food insecurity in urban centers.

Food security is becoming an increasingly relevant topic in the Global North, especially in urban areas. Because such areas do not always have good access to nutritionally adequate food, the question of how to supply them is an urgent priority in order to maintain a healthy population. Urban and peri-urban agriculture, as sources of local fresh food, could play an important role. Whereas some scholars do not differentiate between peri-urban and urban agriculture, seeing them as a single entity, our hypothesis is that they are distinct, and that this has important consequences for food security and other issues. This has knock-on effects for food system planning and has not yet been appropriately analysed. The objectives of this study are to provide a systematic understanding of urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North, showing their similarities and differences, and to analyse their impact on urban food security. To this end, an extensive literature review was conducted, resulting in the identification and comparison of their spatial, ecological and socio-economic characteristics. The findings are discussed in terms of their impact on food security in relation to the four levels of the food system: food production, processing, distribution and consumption. The results show that urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North indeed differ in most of their characteristics and consequently also in their ability to meet the food needs of urban inhabitants. While urban agriculture still meets food needs mainly at the household level, peri-urban agriculture can provide larger quantities and has broader distribution pathways, giving it a separate status in terms of food security. Nevertheless, both possess (unused) potential, making them valuable for urban food planning, and both face similar threats regarding urbanisation pressures, necessitating adequate planning measures.

Environmental sanitation comprises disposal and treatment of human excreta, solid waste and wastewater, control of disease vectors, and provision of washing facilities for personal and domestic hygiene. The conventional approach to environmental sanitation is characterised by a linear waste management system, where valuable plant nutrients are often not only wasted, but also create pollution problems in receiving waters. Closing the nutrient loop is one of the main objectives of a more ecological approach to environmental sanitation. Reuse of wastewater and organic waste in urban agriculture may contribute to closing this nutrient loop. In addition to food security and income generation, urban agricultural activities can thus help to improve public health and resource management. However, some urban agricultural processes, such as "agricultural practices", "soil quality management" and "irrigation", still require further research.

For several decades, a diverse literature has claimed that urban agriculture has the potential for hunger and poverty alleviation. This article reviews empirical data from equatorial Africa that touch on this assertion, updating the work on the subject published in the mid-1990s. Research, largely from East Africa but also including Cameroon in West Central Africa, appearing in several recent and currently emerging publications is assessed and compared. The article attempts to quantify the extent of urban agriculture in several cities based on the proportion of urban households involved, and assesses its statistical and qualitative relationship to urban food and nutrition security as well as its complex relationship to poverty. The role of urban agriculture in closing eco-cycles is discussed in important new data from three cities on how organic solid waste is, or is not, being re-used. Recent efforts in policy-making in three East African cities are reviewed, prior to making a policy analysis. The article concludes that the scale and extent of urban agriculture is increasing with, or perhaps in excess of, urban growth according to available data, and that it is beneficial to human health as well as to hunger and poverty alleviation. Urban livestock production and land availability are particularly beneficial. Poverty alleviation through urban agriculture could be both better understood and supported by appropriate policy measures, since better-off households are currently benefiting more from urban agriculture than the majority of poor households. Nutrient cycling through urban agriculture is enhanced by small mixed crop—livestock farms, which are the “backbone of urban farming systems”. Recent policy measures emerging in the region suggest positive future direction.

– Urban agriculture (UA) is defined as the production of crop and livestock goods within city and town boundaries. According to some statistics, 200 million people are employed in UA, contributing to the food supply of 800 million urban dwellers [1]. In African countries, 40 per cent of urban dwellers are said to be engaged in some sort of agricultural activities and this percentage rises to 50 per cent in Latin American countries [2]. If such numbers are accurate UA may play a role in addressing urban food insecurity problems. This paper attempts to fill some of the key research gaps in this area using survey data for 15 developing or transition countries. The paper analyzes in a comparative perspective the importance of UA for the poor and food insecure households located in urban areas. Keyword – urban agriculture, nutrition, micro data. I. INTRODUCTION Ravallion (2007) [3] estimates that about one-quarter of the developing world’s poor live in urban areas. Poverty is becoming an urban phenomenon and poor households are urbanizing faster than the population as a whole. UA might be seen as a way to reduce poverty and under nutrition in urban area. Our understanding of the importance, nature and food security implications of UA is however plagued by a lack of good quality and reliable data. While studies based on survey data do exist for several major cities, much of the evidence is still qualitative if not anecdotal. This paper analyzes in a comparative perspective the importance of UA for 15 developing or transition countries. The two basic research questions the paper addresses are: 1. What is the magnitude of UA in terms of households that are engaged in urban agricultural activities and what is the share of income they derive from it? 2. Is there a link between households’ engagement in UA and household food security (as proxied by dietary diversity)? After a brief review of the literature (section II), the paper quantifies the importance of UA in terms of the share of urban households engaged in agricultural activities and of the share of income generated by UA (Section III). In Section IV, we use multivariate analysis to gauge how participation in UA impacts dietary diversity. Dietary diversity indexes have been shown to be good proxies for calories intake and nutritional outcomes [4]. The key findings and policy conclusions are briefly outlined in Section V.

Kenya is rapidly urbanising. In the growing cities and towns, there is an increasing need for food supplies, creating demand for agricultural products. High unemployment rates, urban poverty, and food and nutrition insecurity force some urban dwellers to partly adopt livelihood strategies based on urban agriculture. Presently in Kenya, urban and peri‐urban agriculture plays an important role in urban food system, because it enhances livelihood strategies for urban households, not least the poor. Using a sample of 2,009 households, this study characterised urban farming and urban‐based rural farming in medium‐sized towns of Thika and Kisumu, Kenya. It further assessed food security levels of urban households engaged in farming and households that do not farm. Results demonstrate that more than half of the households produced part of their food, either in urban or rural areas. About 37 per cent and 25 per cent of the respondents produced food in rural and urban areas, respectively. Generally, more of the households engaged in both urban farming and urban‐based rural agriculture are more food secure compared with the non‐farming households. Urban farming has a potential of improving household food security and provision of fungible income; hence, the practice should be included in the urban food policies.

Food (in)security in relation to nutrition (in)security in a national cross-sectional sample of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants: considerations of an emerging construct

Urban food systems: Factors associated with food insecurity in the urban settings evidence from Dessie and Combolcha cities, north-central Ethiopia

There is growing evidence of urban poverty in and around cities in sub-Saharan Africa in the form of food and nutrition insecurity. Although many studies have been done across sub-Saharan Africa on urban agriculture, food and nutrition insecurity, little is known about the association of urban agriculture to household food and nutrition insecurity along the urban–rural continuum, especially in West African cities. Therefore, a survey was carried out between August and September 2014 in and around Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), using a transect approach to guide the data collection. The purpose of this study was to understand the dynamics of urban, periurban and rural agriculture and its association with household food and nutrition insecurity. A total of 240 households participated in the survey. From these households, data were collected on 179 women of reproductive age (15–49 yr) and 133 children under the age of 5 yr to compute Women's Dietary Diversity Scores (WDDS) and other anthropometric indices. The results of this study provide a general picture of crop production which is inclined to subsistence and income generation. Households in rural and periurban areas were more engaged in crop and livestock production compared with their urban area counterparts. Households in periurban areas had the highest relative proportion (54%) of food insecurity (household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS) > 11), compared with urban areas (39%) and rural areas (45%). At the same time the periurban households had the highest relative proportion of stunting and wasting prevalence compared with urban and rural households. Households in the rural areas had the highest dietary diversity (WDDS ≥ 6), compared with periurban and urban households. Households keeping livestock significantly experienced less wasting (weight-for-height index (WHZ)) (coef = −0.15;P= 0.008) by a factor of 0.15, and overweight (body mass index (BMI)-for-age (BAZ)) (coef = −0.12;P= 0.015) by a factor of 0.12 compared with households not doing livestock keeping. Households involved in crop production significantly experienced more food insecurity, HFIAS (coef. = 2.55;P= 0.042) by a factor of 2.55 compared with households without crop production. The complexity of periurban areas coupled with the scourge of food and nutrition insecurity will require more periurban agriculture and food policy consideration.

Urban Agriculture: A Way Forward to Food and Nutrition Security in Malaysia

Despite the perceived white-collar and industry-based formal employment gravity of urban areas of developing countries, poverty and food insecurity persists. Therefore, urban agriculture, a predominantly rural economic activity, emerges as a lucrative livelihood strategy used to curb urban food insecurity. We assessed the contributions of urban agriculture to household food security and income in Cold Stream, a low income residential area in Chinhoyi town in Zimbabwe. Weadministered 20 questionnaires to a convenient sample of urban farmers, interviewed five purposively sampled informants from key institutions and carried out three temporally spaced fieldworks. The results clearly show that urban agriculture is a prominent livelihood of the poor unemployed majority (53%) who dominate the economic category. Key informants interviews indicated that although local non-governmental organisations boost urban agriculture by providing farm inputs and technical advice free of charge, there is no government support this activity. Furthermore, results from questionnaires show that yields as well as income from their sales is used primarily for acquiring basic necessities rather than for luxury thereby confirming that the farmers are poor. All urban farmers (100%) consume their farm produce indicating that urban agriculture enhances food security. Moreover, a majority (80%) overwhelmingly concurred that urban farming makes food cheaper hence improves food accessibility, which is an important pillar of food security. Additionally, a majority (60%) earn significant income from selling farm produce, of which 84% sale to informal markets while remaining minority 16% to the formal markets. Notably, about half the sample (48%) also concurred that urban agriculture reduce food insecurity even in their rural homes where they also remit some of their farm produce. However, there are challenges negatively affecting urban agriculture. Some of the challenges include lack of credit lines for inputs and unfavourable policy arrangements that classifies urban agriculture as illegal activity.

The (peri-)urban population in developing countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa, is rapidly increasing. As towns and cities grow, so does the demand for fish protein. While flow-through aquaculture can provide fresh, healthy and nutritious fish protein, it is plagued by extensive land requirements as well as effluent discharge and is thus unsuitable for city regions. Alternatively, small-scale Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) could improve food and nutritional security and livelihoods as well as reduce environmental degradation in (peri-)urban areas despite land and water constraints. The question, however, remains—what are the key technical, business and managerial issues surrounding small-scale RAS in (peri-)urban farming? To answer this question, first, a systematic literature review on RAS in sub-Saharan Africa is conducted. Second, the RAS prototype of the Sustainable Aquaponics for Nutritional and Food Security in Urban Sub-Saharan Africa (SANFU) II project is assessed. This assessment is based on the mass balance and stock density, relevant for fish survival and/or availability as well as net cash flow analyses. The results suggest that small-scale RAS are technically and financially viable with efficient filtration and family labor having proper aquaculture monitoring and management skills. Furthermore, access to adequate equipment and inputs as well as electricity for the recirculating system are crucial. (Peri-)urban innovation actors will adopt RAS if operations are profitable.

Agriculture production is directly dependent on climate change and weather. Possible changes in temperature, precipitation and CO2 concentration are expected to significantly impact crop growth and ultimately we lose our crop productivity and indirectly affect the sustainable food availability issue. The overall impact of climate change on worldwide food production is considered to be low to moderate with successful adaptation and adequate irrigation. Climate change has a serious impact on the availability of various resources on the earth especially water, which sustains life on this planet. The global food security situation and outlook remains delicately imbalanced amid surplus food production and the prevalence of hunger, due to the complex interplay of social, economic, and ecological factors that mediate food security outcomes at various human and institutional scales. Weather aberration poses complex challenges in terms of increased variability and risk for food producers and the energy and water sectors. Changes in the biosphere, biodiversity and natural resources are adversely affecting human health and quality of life. Throughout the 21st century, India is projected to experience warming above global level. India will also begin to experience more seasonal variation in temperature with more warming in the winters than summers. Longevity of heat waves across India has extended in recent years with warmer night temperatures and hotter days, and this trend is expected to continue. Strategic research priorities are outlined for a range of sectors that underpin global food security, including: agriculture, ecosystem services from agriculture, climate change, international trade, water management solutions, the water-energy-food security nexus, service delivery to smallholders and women farmers, and better governance models and regional priority setting. There is a need to look beyond agriculture and invest in affordable and suitable farm technologies if the problem of food insecurity is to be addressed in a sustainable manner. Introduction Globally, agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. This vulnerability is relatively higher in India in view of the large population depending on agriculture and poor coping capabilities of small and marginal farmers. Impacts of climate change pose a serious threat to food security. “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (World Food Summit, 1996). This definition gives rise to four dimensions of food security: availability of food, accessibility (economically and physically), utilization (the way it is used and assimilated by the human body) and stability of these three dimensions. According to the United Nations, in 2015, there are still 836 million people in the world living in extreme poverty (less than USD1.25/day) (UN, 2015). And according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), at least 70 percent of the very poor live in rural areas, most of them depending partly (or completely) on agriculture for their livelihoods. It is estimated that 500 million smallholder farms in the developing world are supporting almost 2 billion people, and in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa these small farms produce about 80 percent of the food consumed. Climate change threatens to reverse the progress made so far in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. As highlighted by the assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC), climate change augments and intensifies risks to food security for the most vulnerable countries and populations. Few of the major risks induced by climate change, as identified by IPCC have direct consequences for food security (IPCC, 2007). These are mainly to loss of rural livelihoods and income, loss of marine and coastal ecosystems, livelihoods loss of terrestrial and inland water ecosystems and food insecurity (breakdown of food systems). Rural farmers, whose livelihood depends on the use of natural resources, are likely to bear the brunt of adverse impacts. Most of the crop simulation model runs and experiments under elevated temperature and carbon dioxide indicate that by 2030, a 3-7% decline in the yield of principal cereal crops like rice and wheat is likely in India by adoption of current production technologies. Global warming impacts growth, reproduction and yields of food and horticulture crops, increases crop water requirement, causes more soil erosion, increases thermal stress on animals leading to decreased milk yields and change the distribution and breeding season of fisheries. Fast changing climatic conditions, shrinking land, water and other natural resources with rapid growing population around the globe has put many challenges before us (Mukherjee, 2014). Food is going to be second most challenging issue for mankind in time to come. India will also begin to experience more seasonal variation in temperature with more warming in the winters than summers (Christensen et al., 2007). Climate change is posing a great threat to agriculture and food security in India and it's subcontinent. Water is the most critical agricultural input in India, as 55% of the total cultivated areas do not have irrigation facilities. Currently we are able to secure food supplies under these varying conditions. Under the threat of climate variability, our food grain production system becomes quite comfortable and easily accessible for local people. India's food grain production is estimated to rise 2 per cent in 2020-21 crop years to an all-time high of 303.34 million tonnes on better output of rice, wheat, pulse and coarse cereals amid good monsoon rains last year. In the 2019-20 crop year, the country's food grain output (comprising wheat, rice, pulses and coarse cereals) stood at a record 297.5 million tonnes (MT). Releasing the second advance estimates for 2020-21 crop year, the agriculture ministry said foodgrain production is projected at a record 303.34 MT. As per the data, rice production is pegged at record 120.32 MT as against 118.87 MT in the previous year. Wheat production is estimated to rise to a record 109.24 MT in 2020-21 from 107.86 MT in the previous year, while output of coarse cereals is likely to increase to 49.36 MT from 47.75 MT. Pulses output is seen at 24.42 MT, up from 23.03 MT in 2019-20 crop year. In the non-foodgrain category, the production of oilseeds is estimated at 37.31 MT in 2020-21 as against 33.22 MT in the previous year. Sugarcane production is pegged at 397.66 MT from 370.50 MT in the previous year, while cotton output is expected to be higher at 36.54 million bales (170 kg each) from 36.07. This production figure seem to be sufficient for current population, but we need to improve more and more with vertical farming and advance agronomic and crop improvement tools for future burgeoning population figure under the milieu of climate change issue. Our rural mass and tribal people have very limited resources and they sometime complete depend on forest microhabitat. To order to ensure food and nutritional security for growing population, a new strategy needs to be initiated for growing of crops in changing climatic condition. The country has a large pool of underutilized or underexploited fruit or cereals crops which have enormous potential for contributing to food security, nutrition, health, ecosystem sustainability under the changing climatic conditions, since they require little input, as they have inherent capabilities to withstand biotic and abiotic stress. Apart from the impacts on agronomic conditions of crop productions, climate change also affects the economy, food systems and wellbeing of the consumers (Abbade, 2017). Crop nutritional quality become very challenging, as we noticed that, zinc and iron deficiency is a serious global health problem in humans depending on cereal-diet and is largely prevalent in low-income countries like Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and South-east Asia. We report inefficiency of modern-bred cultivars of rice and wheat to sequester those essential nutrients in grains as the reason for such deficiency and prevalence (Debnath et al., 2021). Keeping in mind the crop yield and nutritional quality become very daunting task to our food security issue and this can overcome with the proper and time bound research in cognizance with the environment. Threat and challenges In recent years, climate change has become a debatable issue worldwide. South Asia will be one of the most adversely affected regions in terms of impacts of climate change on agricultural yield, economic activity and trading policies. Addressing climate change is central for global future food security and poverty alleviation. The approach would need to implement strategies linked with developmental plans to enhance its adaptive capacity in terms of climate resilience and mitigation. Over time, there has been a visible shift in the global climate change initiative towards adaptation. Adaptation can complement mitigation as a cost-effective strategy to reduce climate change risks. The impact of climate change is projected to have different effects across societies and countries. Mitigation and adaptation actions can, if appropriately designed, advance sustainable development and equity both within and across countries and between generations. One approach to balancing the attention on adaptation and mitigation strategies is to compare the costs and benefits of both the strategies. The most imminent change is the increase in the atmospheric temperatures due to increase levels of GHGs (Green House Gases) i.e. carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) etc into the atmosphere. The global mean annual temperatures at the end of the 20th