Urban Agriculture, Price Volatility.Drought ,And Food Security In Developing Countries

Urban Farm DB summary

A paper using a newly compiled dataset combining comparable, nationally representative household survey data from 15 developing or transition countries to analyze, in comparative international perspective, the importance of urban agriculture for the urban poor and food insecure. The potential for urban agriculture to play a substantial role in reducing urban poverty and food insecurity should not be overemphasized, the study finds, as its share of income and of overall agricultural production is often quite limited. At the same time, its role should not be too easily dismissed either: particularly across much of Africa, agriculture provides a substantial share of income for the urban poor and constitutes an important livelihood source for the households that rely on it. The study finds fairly consistent statistical evidence of an association between engagement in urban agriculture and dietary adequacy indicators.