Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture in the Global South

Abstract

In the contemporary world, modernist Western thought supports stereotypical perceptions of cities (innovative, dynamic, progressive) as fundamentally different from the countryside (traditional, static, conservative). This leads to the effect of making near-residential agriculture obsolete; made redundant by transport technologies and an agricultural industry that rapidly moves large quantities of foodstuff from one region to another. However, the reality of urban food production in most countries of the Global South tells another story. This chapter uses recent and Pre-Columbian Maya case studies from four different regions of the world (Africa, South-East Asia, Middle America, and the Caribbean) to illustrate the importance of urban and peri-urban agriculture and food and nutrition security as fundamental aspects of the social-ecological resilience of cities. The chapter elaborates the differences of urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Global South and the Global North, including institutional support and regulations, gender roles, the importance for food and nutrition security (case studies on Cuba and Thailand), livelihoods, ecosystem services, urban ecology (case studies on Burkina Faso and Ghana), and the role of urban food commons (case study on Cuba). This demonstrates that food production is not “the antithesis of the city”, but an urban activity that contributes to the resilience of cities.