URBAN HORTICULTURE IN REVIEW
Ryerson University Offers Two Distance Learning Education Courses
Published on 19th Jun 2010
Fall (11 September-11 December 2010). Both courses have been developed by ETC-Urban Agriculture (ETC-UA) and (RUAF), with technical support provided by The Chang School, Ryerson University, Canada.
The first course “Understanding urban agriculture” will provide you a broad overview of urban agriculture, its forms, roles and impacts. The second course : Urban agriculture policy making” guides learners through multi-stakeholder processes of policy making and action planning for urban agriculture.
CVFN 410 Understanding Urban Agriculture
Certificate Credit
Fee: $515 CAD (NB: Unfortunately, no scholarships can be offered)
Millions globally practise urban agriculture, with governments and civil society organizations increasingly promoting it to enhance urban food security, health, community building, sustainable livelihoods, and environmental management. This course expands the understanding of urban agriculture, its main types and dimensions, its potential impacts, the constraints and opportunities facing it, the stakeholders involved in it, the historical contexts shaping it, and the local, regional, and international development trends bearing on it.
CVFN 413 Urban Agriculture Policy-Making
Certificate Credit
Fee: $515 CAD (NB: Unfortunately, no scholarships can be offered)
This course discusses participatory policy formulation processes leading to sustainable development and institutionalisation of urban agriculture. It starts discussing tools and methodologies for analysing stakeholders, farming systems, land uses, and regulatory frameworks. Next steps involve strategic planning, followed by the formulation of action projects and policies and their implementation (considering contrasting disciplinary perspectives), and finally, monitoring and evaluation. The course highlights lessons from a wide array of cities around the world. The courses are fully offered on-line and do not require participation in any face-2-face meetings or sessions. They specifically target:-students interested in urban agriculture and its policies-researchers and professionals working in social services, public health, environmental studies, international development, food aid, poverty alleviation, and other fields-non-governmental organization (NGO) and government staff in related fields. For further information on course content, set up or inscription please contact: Reg Noble, Ryerson Coordinator of the Food Security CertificateEmail: food@ryerson.cahttp://ryerson.ca/foodsecurity/certificate/index.html
Growing Greener Cities: A New FAO Website Information Initiative
Published on 17th Jun 2010
“Growing Greener Cities”, a new FAO information website initiative, has been undertaken by AGP’s Programme for Urban and Peri-urban Horticulture (UPH), a key component of Food for the Cities. It is in English, French and Spanish, at the following URL: www.fao.org/ag/agp/greenercities/
At present, the website includes information on:
- The contribution of UPH to food security, livelihoods, environmental protection, good governance and community development
- FAO’s five-point strategy for development of the UPH sector
- FAO projects for UPH development in Africa and Latin America
- The “International symposium on Urban and peri-urban horticulture” to be held in Dakar, Senegal (5-9 December 2010)
- FAO’s partners in UPH development
In addition, on the occasion of the sessions of the FAO Committee on Agriculture (COAG) and the Committee on Commodity Problems (CCP) at FAO headquarters, from 14-19 June, they will hold an exhibit on UPH in the FAO Atrium. The display will present the new logo for the “Growing Greener Cities” initiative. It will also feature a display of vegetable micro-garden technology (with 100 plants), a display of photographs from an FAO project for market garden development in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a video on community gardening in El Alto, Bolivia.
The exhibit will also present their new publication, “Growing Greener Cities”, which reviews the challenge posed by rapid urbanization in low-income developing countries and highlights the contribution of urban and peri-urban horticulture to more resilient and sustainable cities. For copies of the publication, please write to greenercities@fao.org
Contibutions Requested for the FSN Forum on Food, Agriculture and Cities 02.11.2009 to 30.11.2009
Published on 23rd Nov 2009
Members are invited to reflect on how the fact that over half of the world population today is living in urban areas is producing effects on their food security and on the need to strengthen urban-rural linkages. This topic was raised by Julien Custot from FAO on behalf of the Food for the Cities Interdiscipinary Initiative to serve as a prepatory debate in view of the World Urban Forum 5th session March, 2010.
- Read the introductory message
- Read the introductory message in Spanish
- Read the introductory message in French
- Discussion proceedings
FSN Forum: Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition is an online network whose members share experiences, identify resources, provide peer coaching and support and find collective solutions to food security and nutrition (FSN) issues, focusing on FSN policies.
Ph.D thesis: An Urban Horticulture Case Study
Marie Mawois has recently finished her PhD thesis at Le Centre international d’études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro, France). The thesis title is: "Constitution des systèmes de culture maraîchers à proximité d’une ville : quelles marges de manœuvre des agriculteurs pour répondre à une augmentation de la demande ? Cas des systèmes de culture à base de légumes feuilles dans l’espace périurbain de Mahajanga (Madagascar)"
The English title is : "Constitution of market-garden cropping system located around a city : what is the farmers’ room for manœuvre in response to an increase demand ? The case of leafy vegetable cropping system in the urban district of Mahajanga (Madagascar)"
Thesis abstract in French and English (pdf). Email: marie.mawois@supagro.inra.fr
"Food, Agriculture and Cities" Briefing Note Released by FAO FCIT
Published on 28th Oct 2009
At the end of the “Food, agriculture and cities: challenges and way forward” Technical Consultation held at FAO HQs in Rome on September 24th and 25th 2009, it was decided to finalize a briefing note to be circulated at senior management level and donors level. The title of the briefing note is "Food, Agriculture and Cities: Challenges and Priorities".
UPCOMING EVENTS
"Mange t-on mieux en ville ou à la campagne ?
| What | Event |
|---|---|
| When | 4th Feb 2010 |
| Where | Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic of (TZA) |
| More Info | http://www.ambafrance-tz.org/france_tanzanie/spip.php?article780 |
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"Mange t-on mieux en ville ou à la campagne ? Approvisionnement des villes en produits horticoles, enjeux de santé, économiques et environnementaux majeurs" par Rémi Kahane
Horticulture: Urban Natural Resources Management for Poverty Reduction
| What | Event |
|---|---|
| When | 5th Feb 2010 |
| Where | Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic of (TZA) |
| More Info | http://www.mdpafrica.org.zw/algaf10/roIfeb5_2010.pdf |
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A lecture presented by Remi Kahane in the Africa Local Government Action Forum (ALGAF) Phase X Module "Natural Resources Management, Pro-Poor Governance and ICT" (GDLN).
Remi Kahane's talk can be downloaded by clicking here.
World Urban Forum 5: The right to the city-bridging the urban divide
| What | Forum |
|---|---|
| When | 22nd to 26th Mar 2010 |
| Where | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (BRA) |
| More Info | http://www.un-habitat.org/categories.asp?catid=584 |
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In the space of a few short years, the World Urban Forum has turned into the world’s premier conference on cities. The Forum was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing problems facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies. read more...
Resilient Cities 2010 1st World Congress on Cities and Adaptation to Climate Change
| What | Congress |
|---|---|
| When | 28th to 30th May 2010 |
| Where | Bonn, Germany (DEU) |
| More Info | http://resilient-cities.iclei.org/bonn2010/ |
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Local Governments for Sustainability, together with the City of Bonn and in cooperation with many partner organizations, will host Resilient Cities 2010, the annual global forum on urban resiliency and adaptation to climate change. The Congress will be held on 28-30 May 2010 in Bonn, Germany, preceding the UN climate talks in Bonn, which are scheduled for 31 May – 11 June 2010. Resilient Cities 2010 is the first edition of an annual convention to share the latest scientific findings, effective approaches and state-of-the-art programs on climate change adaptation and resilience-building in cities and urbanized areas.
International Symposium Urban and Peri-urban Horticulture in the Century of Cities
| What | Symposium |
|---|---|
| When | 5th to 9th Dec 2010 |
| Where | Dakar, Senegal (SEN) |
| More Info | http://www.fao.org/agriculture/crops/core-themes/theme/hort-indust-crops/isd/en/ |
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An international symposium, "Urban and peri-urban horticulture 
in the century of cities: Lessons, challenges, opportunities" will take place in Dakar, Senegal December 5-9, 2010. The symposium is organized by FAO and Senegal’s Ministry of Agriculture with the partnership of GlobalHort, CIRAD and ISHS. The symposium will cover key links in the production, supply and value chains, including secure access to natural resources, integrated plant production and protection, post-harvest handling/processing technologies, product quality and safety, and marketing. The symposium is expected to provide guidance for the preparation of FAO’s report on the State of Urban and Peri-Urban Horticulture in Africa (SOUPHA), to be published in 2011.
RESOURCES
Agricultures et développement urbain en Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre (CIRAD)
FAO Food for the Cities (FCIT)
Growing Greener Cities (FAO's Programme for Urban and Peri-Urban Horticulture)
IndigenoVeg A network to promote the sustainable production of indigenous vegetables through urban and peri-urban agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.
International Society for Horticultural Science Commission on Landscape and Urban Horticulture
RUAF Foundation: Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture & Food Security.
The RUAF Foundation is currently constituted by 1 international and 7 regional partners: ETC Foundation (the Netherlands); IPES-Promoción Desarrollo Sostenible (Peru), the International Water Management Institute IWMI (India and Ghana); Institut Africain de Gestion Urbaine IAGU (Senegal); Municipal Development Partnership MDP (Zimbabwe); the Environment and Sustainable Development Unit of the American University of Beirut, AUB/ESDU (Lebanon) and the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences IGSNRR (China). The partners in the RUAF Foundation see as their mission: ‘’to contribute to urban poverty reduction, employment generation and food security and to stimulate participatory city governance and improved urban environmental management, by creating enabling conditions for empowerment of male and female urban and peri-urban farmers, capacity development of local authorities and other stakeholders and by facilitating the integration of urban agriculture in gender-sensitive policies and action programmes of local governments, civic society organisations and private enterprises with active involvement of the urban farmers, livestock keepers and other relevant stakeholders”. RUAF is currently implementing the Cities Farming for the Future programme (2005-2008) through which it is facilitating multi-stakeholder policy formulation and action planning in 21 pilot cities in each of 7 regions.
The Urban Agriculture Network - TUAN
Urban Harvest CGIAR's system-wide initiative to direct and coordinate the collective knowledge and technologies of the Future Harvest Centers towards strengthening urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA).
Urban Agriculture Course Ryerson University
Acta Horticulturae: ISHS Commission on Landscape and Urban Horticulture
Etat des recherches sur l'agriculture périurbaine en France. 2007. Rapport INRA-SAD, UMR 951 Innovation, équipe Innovations Territoriales par B. Sabatier
Urban Agriculture Magazine Published by RUAF. Back issues are available at website.
From the Ground Up: Organic Gardening Fuels a Food Revolution A quiet revolution is pulsing through the huge residential areas spread out on the edges of Cape Town. An AllAfrica special festure, illustrated with video clips and photo galleries, provides coverage on a movement fuelled by vegetables and led by grandmothers