FAO Specialist Notes Issues for Food as Urban Areas Expand

May 7, 2002

Olivio Argenti, Food and Agriculture Organization urban food security specialist, says urbanization is likely to take over the productive land, pushing food production further away from urban areas. This increases the cost of all activities associated with producing food and bringing it to cities, calling for massive investments.

"The consequences are all the more critical where infrastructure and services such as transport, storage, slaughterhouses and markets are already overstretched, which is the situation in most cities in developing countries," he says. If the population is growing 9-10% a year, as is the case in some African cities, it will double in less than a decade. In Latin America, cities are growing more slowly, but the urban population is already 75% and still increasing.

Urban agriculture does contribute to feeding urban populations, he notes. About 200 million urban farmers throughout the world supply food to 700 million people. However, there are a lot of risks associated with urban food production, especially the risk of contamination.

"I recently visited an urban agricultural area in Mexico near a river into which all the sewage goes from the nearby village. They use the mud to prepare seed beds and the water to water the vegetables. I asked the authorities if they were aware of the danger, and they said that they were not in a position to do anything because they didn't have the financial or technical means," Argenti said.

"Unfortunately, the health risk has paved the ground for authorities to try to prevent urban food production rather than find solutions to the contamination. The point is to not take an anti-production approach, but to try to facilitate safe food production. It is a very important source of food, such as vegetables, fruits and meat, which are usually absent from the diets of low-income families," he added.

Local authorities are being given more and more responsibilities each day because of decentralization programs but often without the necessary financial, human and technical resources. "We must remember that there are cities whose municipal authorities have a budget of one dollar per year per inhabitant. With a budget like that, you have to look to the private sector. With competent human resources, local authorities can improve the soundness and sustainability of their intervention programs and create favorable conditions for higher private investment."