Ask Ag About... How Food Systems Need to Adapt as Populations Shift and Grow

To further zoom in on the role of private sector in urban food systems: we questioned in our study what private sector is and could be involved. We identified private sector traditionally engaged in different parts of the food systems (from input supply to retail and marketing), but also "new" urban private sector such as technology companies (Philips, Sharp, Panasonic), utility companies, real estate and social housing and financing organisations. We found the importance of defining what type of urban food system we want in order to be able to discuss private sector behaviour that would contribute to specific food system outcomes. We make a very preliminary conclusion that larger private sector may have large impacts in terms of scale of operations, but may not necessarily contribute to specific sustainability and social inclusion criteria. Smaller and medium size private sector and family business located in the urban areas and serving the urban area may contribute to a larger extent to such sustainability concerns. Support to the entire food value chain is likely to have larger trickle-down effects. Questions are how private sector can build on and strengthen existing food systems (especially when these are still largely based on informal economy), on how larger processing and retail can still connect to a larger regional supplier base of smallholders and SMEs and on how corporate social and environmental responsibility concerns can also take local employment creation and food access for poor urban populations into account. We also need to know more about internal private sector cost-benefit accounting to engage in urban food systems. Private sector cannot do this alone and sustainable urban food systems need government intervention and support and consumer demand. Marielle Dubbeling, Director RUAF Foundation

Thanks Robert. Secure access to and tenure of land is crucial for urban and peri-urban farmers. There are several new innovations we can learn from, like Urban Land Trusts for urban agriculture; combining temporal user right agreements with tax exemptions for property owners, zoning arrangements amongst others. India has been discussing a zero loss of land regulation where companies wanting to build on peri-urban agriculture land would have to compensate for loss of land by supporting or intensifying urban agriculture elsewhere (compensation mechanisms). Lima (Peru) has been looking how to preserve their peri-urban land and has been discussing an arrangement in which building companies would pay private land owners a specific amount of money (which would compensate them for not being able to sell their agriculture land for urbanisation). In return for such payment the building company would get a licence to build in non-agricultural areas or in the inner city. Amman (Jordan) and Rosario (Argentina) have established a municipal land bank for urban agriculture as a management tool.   

Marielle Dubbeling, RUAF Foundation

Glad to see we have an expert on urban agriculture, look forward to your contributions tomorrow, Marielle! 

Hi everyone, this is Rob Henning, the Agriculture and Food Security Practice Director at Chemonics. Great to see so many people already engaged in this chat!  Looking forward to hearing about what the group sees as the key differences in rural vs. urban food security and systems and how we adapt program design and business models to feed the worlds cities.  

Hi Rob, it is urgent we move beyond urban vs. rural, understand the interface and related constraints and promote joint planning.

Hi Florence, fully agree with the need to integrate the two (rural and urban) as our ultimate objective.  My previous comment was aimed at making sure we understand some of the key differences across the four food security dimensions (access, availabilty, utilization, and stability) and then articulate solutions that enhance food security for all.  Looking forward to the conversation!

Actually I have major problems with the 4 pillars of food security (being in FAO from 1990 to 2013, I actually followed very closely their development) and would be most happy to discuss this further via Skype or other verbal (and free) mechanism :-). We would be better off starting from diets and understanding why urban consumers cannot access healthy diets.

Hi Florence, starting with healthy diets and then the specific (and different) challenges rural and urban consumers have in actually consuming these foods is the goal.  I find the four pillars of food security is a good way to structure these challenges, but definitely not the only way to do this.  Happy to chat further in this forum, but can also take it offline. 

Please don't, this is a democracy :-)

I agree that going from fork to field is a very interesting approach.  We also need to look at healthy diets in rural areas, again talking about the close connectedness and at the same time the huge disparity between rural and urban areas. Milton García, who recently worked on a research project for FAO in Ecuador, shared with me that Quinoa producers would not consume Quinoa at all because for them it was like eating money (Of course this was at the time Quinoa price was high but also due other sociocultural aspects, see cases of Peru and Bolivia as well). Fortunately they discovered that eating Quinoa leaves at a certain point could be a possibility to increase nutritious protein in their diet. Results are still not reported. Many people in and outside cities continue to eat badly, that’s the point, so addressing the whole spectrum would be very interesting. 

The problem is when you transform a subsistence food crop into a cash crop. Then you start "eating money" and stop giving it to your children. And manlnutrition increases...

Absolutely. Public procurement policies (schools  and other institutions) have a key role to play.

it is indeed high time to rethink the global food security strategy :-), see Food systems and diets: Facing the challenges of the 21st century (september 2016) <https://www.glopan.org/foresight>, and in particular the aticulation between local food systems and global food system. see <http://regions-france.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Declaration-de-Quebec-ENG_final.pdf>

I respectfullydisagree with you; we already have expended 75 years insisting in the same agricultural development model using palliative solutions for long-term issues. I disagree with the approach of helping farmers to gain small yields gains, considered unacceptable under developing countries standards.

A key issue is whether we know how to provide a truly long-lasting food security to urban and rural/farming communities. Farming is a science ad and art being forgotten among our societies. The international developers lack creativity to promote efficient agriculture systems because the decision makers have no technical background. The decision makers, with no science base knowledge and no hands-on experience, is making transcendental decisions, and defining what is good or bad for people.

I certainly agree with you we need technical assistance and science. But the limitations of intensive agriculture practices are increasingly visible.  I am sure you are aware of the interesting developments in the area of conservation agriculture or agro-ecology. 

I wish I have better way to put my thought. Unfortunately, the time and space limitation made me go directly to the issues, and make my statements brief…., and thank you for taking the time to exchange ideas.

What are the limitations of intensive agriculture practices? I returned from Iceland assisting a group of private small farms using what I call old intensive innovative agriculture. Their immediate gains from this exchange, and without using all the available technology, the newest led technology and water balance model will increase their yield output by 1.8 times, while reducing their cost by an estimated 28%. During the brief cool season, they will grow silage corn as well to feed their milk cows. If we have ways to improve agriculture under this harsh conditions, what should stop the rest of the word? Perceptions based on n science? It was an excellent pro-bonus experience where I learned new ways.

I have a simple principle that follows my technical and business decisions: What is good for the environment, is good for agriculture, and good for profits.

What is not no good are the wild statements made about the environmental impact and the food security. The biggest environmental impact is made every time someone misplace the human needs in the equation; done when no creativity is used to find safe solutions. Amiable answers care found by people who has taken the time to understand crops as a living body in relation to the complexity of a living soils, and to learn how to mitigate the unexpected water and climatological conditions. A simple example: How often have you seen a filed crop being irrigated based on what the plan need to achieve targeted yields, and infiltration, evotranspiration; too complicated? No. It is simple and easy to use principles that save water, minimize contamination of subsurface water, lowe operational cost, and maximize returns. The same way, we have several other well-known science base relations easy to manage. Why is not being use by the small farmer? Is because many decision makers do not have the holistic view of agriculture production.

This statements are based on 35 years of international and USA experience in agriculture working for the private and the public sector…., and from 14 years of college education (9 in USA).

Mmm... it seems there is actually a lot we would agree on but I do miss some of the socio-cultural dimensions. It's not only soils and water. And I miss political economy: the prevailing development model is driven by major players. Their priority is not small holders or environmental sustainability but access to reliable, cheap and standardized ag products on the one hand, and to markets (agriculture inputs and consumers). 

My statements are based on 35 years experience of international experience (NGOs and public sector) dealing with the outcomes of misdevelopment . Working on the causes of malnutrition meant I was dealing with households and communities marginalized by the economic development model. And I have to confess I only have 13 years of  higher education, Europe:-).

I agree with you. Planners and technical people have difficulty to work among interdisciplinary team looking the same issue with different eyes to propose alternatives. The commercial growers expand where profits prevail regardless of the right of future generations to enjoy life without fear. The international developers lack creativity and percistancy to promote efficient agriculture systems requiring minimum inputs because they are well adaptable to the ecosystems. The consumers sin is not being willing to understand the diet requirement to be healthy. The worse and main capital sin is made everyday by decision makers with no science base knowledge and no hands-on experience making transcendental decision. The arrogants.

Five initial proposal solutions to tackle food systems need to manage populations shift and demand for protein and energy.

1.       Agriculture development must be first recognized as a national and international security issue. People will do whatever is necessary to feed their love one; people already kills for water.

2.       International development and food security must be managed by interdisciplinary teams where technical decision must be made by agricultural professionals.

3.       Agriculture systems must well adapt to the focused ecosystems to minimize the use of external inputs, and must be regulated internationally to avoid dangerous residues in food. Urban and rural.

4.       Technical and market information must be available for free; play exclusivity with basic technologies and practices should be considered criminal attempts against human survival.

5.       Live a simple rule: What is good for the environment is good for agriculture and for business.

6.     Regain a simple survival principle: Defien how and where to produce food, and identify where clear ware is located.

I'm glad you are bringing up municipalities :-)

. They have indeed a key role to play to promote sustainable food systems. See Milan Urban Food Policy Pact <http://www.milanurbanfoodpolicypact.org/>

See also a Dutch City Food Agenda that has been signed today!

New Food POlicy should INCLUDE VOICES OF CITIES: DUTCH CITIES TAKE THE LEAD

Cities have an important role to play in the food system. A majority of the population lives in cities. Food production, processing, retail and marketing is still one of the larger employment generating sectors in both rural and urban areas. Food links directly with other urban sectors such as transport and health. Cities also impact a much larger area because of their food-print. If cities want to play a role in sustainable development they need to include food in their policies and strategies. There are already many cities working on an integral food policies and agendas that link welfare, economy, sustainability and a healthy living environment. For any national food strategy to be successful, cities need to be engaged as a partner.

Today a Dutch food coalition signed a City Deal ‘Food on the Urban Agenda’. 12 counselors and Mayors, the deputy of the Province of Gelderland and 3 Ministers will start collaborating to build together an integrated food strategy for the Netherlands. Please read below the official press announcement (in Dutch).

http://www.binnenlandsbestuur.nl/ruimte-en-milieu/opinie/ingezonden/nieuw-voedselbeleid-kan-niet-om-steden-heen.9556847.lynkx

http://agendastad.nl/film-city-deal-voedsel-op-stedelijke-agenda/

A key difference in urban and rural food systems is that value / supply chains are much longer in the former case. This introduces a whole host of challenges in terms of getting good quality, unspoiled food to urban consumers. Appropriate technologies related to post-harvest handling, cold chain, and logistics will be required to address these longer and more complicated food systems.

Short food chains can help both consumers and producers, protect/generate jobs and reduce transport and storage costs.

and make sure that the practice is sustainable in the first place. Just out of a conference promoting solar energy to pump underground water for irrigation in the Near East. The problem is that water is not renewable... 

• I feel like before launching too far down the road on this question, it is important to reiterate a few things that have already surfaced in the pre-event comments. One is the importance of recognizing the fluidity of the rural/urban spectrum and of the wide range of profiles along that spectrum and not treating “rural households” or individuals as a monolith; this is not just semantic it has real impact on how we design policies and support programs. This is supported by some recent research under USAID’s LEO learning agenda, about moving away from a rigid rural/urban divide, the connections between rural households and urban residents, especially in secondary cities where rural farming household members may be domestic servants, taxi drivers, etc. permanently or to supplement farming income during times of seasonal downtime. Not only is the rural/urban divide not “clean”, but their incomes / well-being are closely linked. 

I also would like to cuation a too strong focus on only technology. The pressure for the processing and retail companies to be efficient, to offer standardised products and to reduce costs presents challenges and obstacles to small-scale farmers, small enterprises and artisanal entrepreneurs. Those groups particularly struggle with the requirement for regular supply, larger volumes, specific products, hygiene and quality standards, cold storage and transport infrastructure.

For reasons of efficiency and scale, new strategies may need to be found where small-scale producers coordinate production and supply and link up with medium-scale intermediaries that can afford the transaction costs to deal directly with supermarkets. The inclusion of city regional provenance criteria in procurement and local guarantee schemes (concerned with the regulation and price barriers around product certification) will also help ensure participation of small-scale producers and SMEs in the city region food system. 

Marielle, RUAF

 Thanks Marielle. I agree that a hyper-focus on technology, in particular the latest trends in ICT, can be a distraction from some other higher-impact approaches. One way to get around this is -- but still harness the latest technologies for the greater good, is to focus more on the local businesses that can employ such technologies, rather than on the technology itself. In Ghana, we have been developing an outgrower business model (called "nucleus farmers", basically lead farmers with 50-200 outgrowers to whom they provide a series of servies as well as aggregating supply), in which technology-enabled services are embedded into the outgrower businesses to ensure sustainability. These tools become part of how the outgrower businesses create a viable business model that will continue to ensure that SHFs meet demands for food. Tablet based extension services app, for example - being piloted through 170 agents of 159 OBs, to allow them expand at minimal costs and in a more organized and customized way the provision of extension services to the outgrowers. They also utilize marketing intelligence reports, showing the global, regional and national maize, rice and soybean market trends, in terms of demand, supply, prices and key macroeconomic data (exchange rates, interest rates, etc.)

Hi all!

I am Alejandro, AAAS S&T Policy fellow at NSF.

I think we should invest more on research and develpment to better implement the concept of smart grids in food systems. Fo example, using data driven modelling to analyze the demand for different foods and where these food can be sourceed from regionally.

Thanks Alejandro, at RTI we agree that research and data driven modeling are important to better understanding and addressing the complexities of food systems. Your standard ICT technologies are more focused on supply than demand, so we recommend more direct research (qualitative or quantitative) to assess demand. The Gates Foundation and UK Aid are jointly funding The Drivers of Food Choice competitive grants program to provide funding for research that will provide a deep understanding of the drivers of food choice among the poor in developing countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, which account for 90% of the global burden of undernutrition.  RTI is currently looking at consumption patterns and demands within families that have both undernourished and obese household members in Malawi.  We are looking at the role of and variability in cognitive, cultural, economic, and food availability factors that drive food choice within and between Malawian mother-child dyads, by nutritional status of the dyad and urban versus rural residence. How intrahousehold decision-making and female autonomy drive food choice in households where either the mother or child is overweight.

Can you tell us more about your ideas on smart grids?

Hi Elizabeth,

The concept of the smart grid is just recently being discussed; for example by the Italian National Research Council.

http://www.neutralscience.org/about/smartgrids-for-food-systems

I think we are at the stage where some version of this concept can be implemented in many regions worldwide. The idea is to empower both the rural and urban sectors. Urban areas benefit because the source of there food is regionally and rural sectors benefit because they are all able to produce their crops informaded by data driven information regarding demand.

The idea is to frist to a capacity assesssment. What are the different infrastructures in palce and with those how one can implment some version of the grid. Today most people have access to smart phones, even in very developing countries. This can be the soruce where data about food consuption can beging to be gathered in urban centers. This technology can also be used to monitor nutrion and health factors. Based on this info and other data regarding climate variations such as weather and water issues can be used to inform where in the supply chain food must be sourced, whether is locally, regionally, or globally.

The smart grid for food systems works in some way like a smart and connected city but at a less complex level. We are far from transfomring developing communities into smart communites but I think we are at the stage where food systems can be modernized using readily available technologies.

Thanks for the resource, Alejandro. I look forward to reading more about it.  I agree that we are at the stage where food systems can be modernized using readily available technologies!

Let's not forget that we have a lot to learn from local (including traditional/indigenous) food practices. We badly need practice-based evidence and horizontal exchange of good practices. And then figure out how we provide an enabling regulatory framework and stop undermining sustainable practices, as well as provide appropruate technological support. Problem is: who would fund? 

Good question, Mo. One of the technical challenges is traceability and food safety. Sanitary and Phytosanitary standards are needed at the policy level, and agribusinesses need tools and skills to be able to adhere to them. For example, RTI is working with ICT providers (in Haiti and Senegal) on mobile supply chain applications that enable end buyers to trace their produce from farm to processing facility. Another challenge is a well-informed and trained workforce that can maintain consistent standards and efficiencies along the supply chain.

Building on Liz's reply about food safety, the importance of storage as a way to combat micotoxins. As an economy transitions to a more urban focused food system, food safety and micotoxins become a major problem as surpluses are moved to cities. To combat this, both drying and storage are needed. Hermetic storage can help prevent aflatoxin increases during storage. But to be able to store maize hermetically, it has to be dry enough, which beomes a major constraint to many farmers. Portable affordable maize dryers that are  suitable for smallholder farmer volumes are one way to address this in a comemrcially viable way. the AflaStop project in Kenya is working on ways to commercialize these dryers within the local market system.

Thanks Elizabeth Although I agree that traceability and compliance with SPS are good technical challenged issues, the intervention options and practicality of underline of plan of action have been addressed.  Collection of data for sake of collection of data would not help unless if there is an action plan particularly on a local level such as big cities.    

Absolutely, any technology driven data collection solution for traceability purposes needs to have corresponding action plan. In Haiti, our work is specifically on sorghum grown in rural areas for urban consumption. The sorghum has to adhere to specific food safety standards per the processor we are working with. Thus, in conjunction with the ICT solution, we have developed a risk analysis and management plan.

That is good to know that it is NOT only Monitoring but surveillance with a prior strategy for a plan of action.  Thanks again

Excellent point Elizabeth, but we also need to revisit regulatory standards to ensure their relevance in the local context. Too often this has resulted in eliminating small scale producers and eroding biodiversity. World wide standards make little sense for short food chains. 

I believe one is regional infrastructure in the form of food hubs; the second one is the lack of technologies in small farms, not to mention equipment parts and the difficulty of obtaining these.

My beleive is that through regional modelling one can understand the urban demand for local or regional products and analyze the capacity thorugh out the diversity in the region for differen crops.

Hi Aisha, what do you mean by "agglomeration economies"?

Agglomeration Economies has to do with the clustering of industries in a particular geographic location, and also the benefits firms reap from locating near each other.

Thanks for the clarification!  Clusters of firms can have significant benefits if they are located in areas of food production.  These can include off-farm employment, more value capture in rural areas, and a reduction in transport costs as more processing is done close to production.  Definitely other ideas out there, but just a couple to start.

Is there any research of this nature going on currently that you know about? Especially in processing. why if production is increased the quality of the finished product is what promotes its acceptability in the market and thats quite a challenge in developing countries, say Nigeria

The benefits of clustering have been promoted by Michael Porter and Mike Fairbanks since the late '90s and there were a lot of studies conducted on the benefits of clusters in the early 2000s.   In my experience in cluster / value chain / market system development, what is really critical is to understand 1) the needs of your end customer, and 2) how various businesses or actors inte value chain create value as part of a broader system.  Once you understand this, you can identify opportunities for clustering.

Thanks Jonathan, is there any focus on gender diversified labour productivity in the firms? Also is there any website or link where i can get more informatiom as regards this.

Given the importance of food vendors in urban food systems, hygiene and food safety for these businesses are critical. Urban consumers can advocate for better regulation and actively engage by mapping their communities using technology as was recently done in Nairobi:   http://www.iied.org/air-citizen-scientists-map-food-dangers-nairobi

I agree that consumer demand is critical, but not always easy to harness. The Nairobi example is a great. Their participation in urban food policy councils is another instrument. Examples from Latin America and Gaza  show that this is possible. Gaza consumers ,small rural producers, private sector and Ministries are brough together in a Platform, supported by RUAF, PNGO and Oxfam.  This is already leading to improved food safety regulations, reactivation of a consumer protection association and communicated through consumer campaigns.

On street foods you may also want to check FAO. They have been working on this for 20 years or more.  I would be happy to play go between if need be. 

Of course, the first thing when we talk about urban residents -- particulary more poor - is that they benefit from lower food prices. This, for those of us who work on and care about rural and/or ag sector development, means that we need to be aware of the possible negative outcomes for smallholder farmers if prices fall faster than productivity rises. So major gains in efficiencies and yields and automation, coupled with off and non-farm opportunities to absorb excess labor after automation, is one of the few ways to have our cake and eat it too. 

As a correlary to this, we also need to recognize the importance of nutrition in food security, and the fact that research indicates that increases in disposable incomes (whetehr through rising incomes or falling food prices) don’t necessarily lead to improved nutrition outcomes. So household based nutrition education becomes crucial; it is particulary important that it be gender sensitive so as to reflect the improtance of household decision making, use of time among household members, etc.

I would like urban consumers to become aware of the impact of their food practices on their health of course, but also on people's livelihoods/jobs and the environment. We need to factor in social and environmental costs. Food consumption should be seen as a citizen's decision. We urgently need to move away from "eat as much as you want of always cheaper foods". 

Hi Sophie, great question and thank you. Engaging youth in agriculture is multi-faceted -- many youth are not interested in on-farm production, yet they are important workforce along the value chain and often do not know about the off-farm agricultural opportunities. In one example -- in Liberia, RTI is establishing a new model of agriculture -- USAID Excellence in Higher Education for Liberian Development (EHELD)  is helping youth see the potential in a career in agriculture, and that farming can be a profession with multiple career paths. Agricultural entrepreneurs can be successful business people by establishing highly productive farming systems. Technically trained rural community development specialists can manage multi-disciplinary programs that complement agricultural production.  We're bringing in both the public sector and private sector to build a Center of Excellence at the leading agricultural university in the country, and training the next generation of agricultural professionals.  We revised the curriculum to reflect modern agricultural best practices and hands-on-learning.

Food and agriculture in the broad sense is a major employment sector for youth. Food processing, distribution and catering including in Europe (and the US I guess) probably provide more realistic opportunities than farming.

Great point, Florence. I absolutely agree.

Wow, what an amazing project! Do you know when the Centre of Excellence will be finished? Will the training include capacity building for youths and business skills? I write for a agricultural development magazine and would love to find out more, can you send me a link to more info?

Hi Sophie, the Centre of Excellence is now established at Cuttington University. If you are interesting in more information or to speaking with someone directly about the project, you could contact me directly (eeckert@rti.org) and I'll direct you accordingly.

Thanks Elizabeth! 

I should also mention, that the right solution is context specific. Some youth will engage in agriculture intermittently -- enabling them access to the skills and resources to tap into value chains with fast economic return is essential. Future development programs need to implement activities for youth that are flexible, enabling them to take advantage of windows of opportunity.

Building on Geoffrey's comment above re food safety and mycotoxins, this needs to start at the farm level. Local, regional, and national governments should ideally "sync" up their regulatory environments to ensure that urban consumers at the end of increasingly complex food systems are guaranteed safe, hygienic and nutritious food.

First, I think in many settings, there is still work to be done in educating the public on what a healthy diet looks like. At RTI we recognize that leadership must come from country governments to set and enforce policies to protect the health of populations. For example, national dietary guidelines underpin education efforts about what healthy diets look like. Governments are responsible for setting and enforcing standards for food safety as well as for the fortification of staple foods with micronutrients. Further, since we’re especially concerned with protecting the health and nutrition of young children so that they don’t fall into undernutrition, we also recognize that policies that support the ability of families to feed their young children are necessary in urban settings—for example, maternity leave so that women can breastfeed their infants. 

Thanks Elizabeth. We now need to move to sustainable dietary guidelines...

<http://www.fao.org/nutrition/education/food-dietary-guidelines/background/sustainable-dietary-guidelines/en/>

Hi Mebrahtu, to build on some of the comments above, urban food security isn't just about what happens in urban areas, but probably more importantly the linkages between rural farmers and urban population centers.  in short, it's a more comprehensive view of food systems.  

I think we can learn a lot from the example of Belo Horizonte in Brazil:

In 1993, the Municipality of Belo Horizonte established a Secretariat for Food Policy and Supply (Secretaria Municipal de Abastecimento–SMAB, later in 2011 renamed the SMASAN–Secretaria Municipal Adjunta de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional), with the objective of developing an integrated urban policy for food security and coordinating all food policies and programmes towards achieving the city’s overall goal: increasing the Right to Food and access to healthy food for all its citizens. It was the city’s vision that it is the duty of governments to guarantee this right.

The effect that food policies and programmes developed by the Municipal Government of Belo Horizonte have (had), go beyond city limits, impacting also surrounding areas and other municipalities in the State of Minas Gerais, where Belo Horizonte is located. This occurs through three main channels:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.    <!--[endif]-->Through the promotion of direct links between rural producers and urban consumers (‘Straight from the Farm programme’ and the ‘Country Store Programme’ as well as conventional and organic markets);

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.    <!--[endif]-->Through institutional food purchase/direct procurement of supply from rural producers in neighbouring municipalities for various SMASAN food programmes; and 

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.    <!--[endif]-->Through food security and nutrition education.

The government of Belo Horizonte has recognised that small family farms in the city region are an important component of a healthy, sustainable urban food system, and hence an important contributor to the welfare of urban residents in the long term. Throughout the years, the local government has shown how it can support the interests of the urban population, while at the same time enhancing the livelihoods of the rural population and the sustainability of rural production.

On interesting example of the ways to connect rural smallholders with supply chain actors in urban markets is to look at Maputo, which has been the epicenter of Mozambique’s impressive economic growth during the last decade. The population of the metropolitan area of Maputo has grown rapidly, reaching over 2.2 million people. This growth has put pressure on food value chain actors and distributions systems, particularly fresh produce –Producers from the surrounding areas have been slow to respond, still offering limited volumes, quality and timeliness. This represented a challenge but also an opportunity for small-holder farmers. The way we approached this challenge/opportunity in our LEAD project was to focus on the market system, rather than zoom in on the producers themselves. This meant developing small-scale enterprises that provide inputs, market linkages and agriculture related services on a commercial basis (key to this is building their awareness that the provision of technical assistance should be included as part of their business model and marketing strategy; these providers provide the specialized support services (spraying) and appropriate technologies (seedlings) needed to make the technical transition of farms to

off-season production less risky, and more profitable. We ensured well-designed outgrower agreement schemes that included improved technology e.g. drip irrigation, linking to 3 different buyer profiles: traditional buyers, small companies and a Nando’s supplier. Some of this can be incorporated (and thus made sustainable) within the marketing strategy of a value

chain actor with an economic interest in the adoption of the behavior change. The value of behavior change barrier analysis was crucial to a good project design that could achieve the desired outcome in terms of rural-urban linkage.

Hi Geoffrey,

Do you have any example case studies from the LEAD project detaling positive impacts of the smallscale enterprises/agreement schemes that you can direct me to?

On the LEAD project in Mozambique, ACDI/VOCA developed outgrower agreeements that were signed with individual farmers and an aggregator. The farmers get inputs on credit from the aggregator that they are then paying back with produce and/or it is being settled when the aggregator is purchasing the product after harvest.  They developed 280 buyer-producer contracts - 100 of those are piri piri farmers who are selling to an aggregator that is then selling it to Nando’s in South Africa. You can read more about the project here: http://www.acdivoca.org/projects/livelihoods-empowerment-and-development-lead/

At Chemonics, we've had great success in Uganda working with the "middle" of the value chain in form of traders who can aggregate production from smallholders and connecting them to secondary cities and the capital. Generally speaking, the lengthening of value chains will require more of a focus on create efficient, modern logistics and distribution systems to move product from rural areas to the cities and innovative business models to tackle the last mile distribution challenges that foster food deserts in cities across the developing world (and even the US).

On this question a lot of interesting practices are spreading in "developed" countries. It would be interesting to set up North-South information exchange platforms, in particular among youth. They would become aware of a degree of similarity in the challenges they face and the importance of networking to move towards sustainability.

I absolutely agree! Many of the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer programs are increasingly tapping into young adults from the United States involved in farming or agribusiness. They go as volunteers for periods of time -- between 2 weeks to 6 weeks -- to developing countries to exchange information and skills.

First of all, there's still a major knowledge gap about the full extent and impact of urban agriculture. There are also many definitional challenges. According to the Committee on World Food Security's background paper on Urbanization and Rural Transformation, some estimates indicate that 1 billion people are farming in cities and contributing to 15-20 percent of the world’s food supply. A 2014 study focused on water and land use in Environmental Research Letters estimated that urban croplands constitute up to 5.9 percent of all croplands globally.

If you have access to unpolluted soil and clean water, home gardens and small poultry farms can help supplement families' diets. (Here is an interesting study on water use in urban/peri-urban agriculture: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/9/11/114002;jsessionid=CDC8986C4B88FF791503B273441B87BC.ip-10-40-1-105). Within urban areas, though, there are a range of limitations to growing the necessary amount of food needed to feed large populations. This includes laws related to land use, health and safety restrictions, and permitting, among others.

Regardless of the amount or types of food that may be grown in urban areas, the contribution to food security will still depend on several other factors, such as a community's ability to effectively store, process, and distribute food once it's cultivated. This is where the local private sector can have a huge role to play in making the most of urban food production.

I was expecting Marielle to comment on this question. You should check RUAF's site <http://www.ruaf.org/> :-). Everything you always wanted to know about UPA (but were afraid to ask)...

I wanted to re-post Florence's link to the RUAF work on this subject:

For examples of city (region) involvement please check our publication with 13 city case studies: http://www.ruaf.org/projects/city-region-food-systems-and-food-waste-man...

For an exploration of the role of private sector in building more sustainable urban food systems please read: http://www.ruaf.org/projects/role-private-sector-city-region-food-systems

Two things that stood out to me from these RUAF documents were the importance of:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->Creating a conducive policy environment and formal acceptance of urban agriculture as an urban land use;

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->Enhancing access to vacant open urban spaces and the security of agricultural land use;"

Theoretically, urban agriculture can play an important role in diet diversifciation by producing perishable, high value food like fruits, vegetables, and animal protein close to urban markets with innovative technologies like vertical or sack gardens. The big risks are environmental like growing near waste dumps or near roadsides.  Theft is also a fear among urban residents. 

Some of you might want to join the Dgroup food for Cities <http://www.fao.org/fcit/fcit-contacts/dgroups-list/en/>