Published by City Farmer, Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture
RUAF Urban Agriculture Video
Commissioned by ETC Netherlands/Resource Centre on Urban Agriculture and Forestry (RUAF)
Contact Wilfred Hertog for more information on obtaining this video:
w.hertog@etcnl.nl
Why This Video?
This video on Urban Agriculture has been produced to facilitate a greater understanding of urban agriculture among policy-makers, urban planners, NGOs, sectoral organisations and other people who can make a contribution to the integration of urban agriculture into urban policies, plans and development programmes.
The first part of the video (approximately 23 minutes) is of special interest for an audience less familiar with the subject matter and that requires an introduction to it. This part of the video shows the different forms of urban agriculture that can be encountered and the type of people involved in it. It also shows the potential contribution of urban agriculture to enhancing urban food security, local economic development and poverty alleviation, to sustainable urban environmental management, as well as illuminating the possible health and environmental risks associated with agriculture in the city.
We hope that upon seeing part one, viewers will have gained the insight that intra-urban and peri-urban agriculture are an intrinsic part of the city's economic and ecological system, and not a relict of rural agriculture that will fade away; and that urban agriculture constitutes a substantial sector that is worthy of supportive and regulatory interventions by municipal authorities in cooperation with the direct and indirect stakeholders.
We also expect that viewers will come to understand that the possible health and environmental risks associated with urban agriculture will not diminish by declaring it illegal (as used to be the case in many cities), but that it requires proper management (differentiated regulations, extension and training, etc.)
The second part of the video (approximately 22 minutes) is titled "From awareness to action" and presents two examples - one in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the other in Cuenca, Ecuador - of local processes of situation analysis, planning and action regarding urban agriculture.
The two cases are different in approach and central themes. This is partly in response to the variation in local socio-economic and geographic conditions, as well as the priorities of the stakeholders involved. However, these two cases also show similarities such as in the collaboration of a variety of stakeholders (including producers, NGOs, sectoral organisations, municipal authorities, private sectors, etc.) and in the different levels (family or micro-enterprise, neighbourhood, city and up to the national level).
Urban agriculture is a cross-sectoral issue that requires a multisectoral and multidisciplinary approach, and the active participation of the direct stakeholders (farmers'groups, small enterprises involved in input delivery, processing and marketing) and indirect stakeholders (advisory services, credit services, city authorities, health departments, etc.) in the planning and implementation of policies and action programmes. Through a step-by-step process, the stakeholders may identify solutions that are commonly accepted and therefore more sustainable.
In the two cities presented in close-up, the recognition of urban agriculture as an important policy issue has made it possible to strengthen its positive impacts and to apply effective and sensible measures to prevent or mitigate its possible negative impacts.
The actions undertaken by researchers, local NGOs, farmers' groups and municipal or governmental projects have also contributed to the integration of urban agriculture into urban land-use planning and sectoral policies and programmes.
We expect that these examples will encourage or enrich initiatives in the field of urban agriculture in other cities.
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