Territorial approaches and city-region approaches are really relevant to understand links between urbanization, rural transformation and food security. I would like to mention the approach by the “agri-urban system” (concept develop by the French research program DAUME) to understand the complexity of city-agriculture interactions at a regional scale. I used this approach in a research in the area of Bobo-Dioulasso, in Burkina Faso and it appeared to be really adapted to think in a holistic way of city-agriculture and urban-rural linkages. My focus was first urban agriculture but then, this framework brought me to the analysis urban-rural relationships of many different types. Indeed, the analysis was based on a systemic approach based on the intersection of three groups of interactions: i) spatial and historical interactions between nature, agriculture and the city, ii) the interactions between the urban system and agriculture, and iii) the interactions within the urban agricultural system (within the urban area and between urban and rural area). This is to identify how a variety of relationships between city and agriculture are developed and what is at stake in the existence and permanence of the agri-urban system (which is a component of the urban food system).
Based on this, I would like to mention 2 aspects that seem important and that I did not see clearly in the document:
-Linkages between rural and urban agriculture: urban agriculture depends on many resources brought by rural farming activities. Indeed, agro-industries (often localized in urban areas) process rural produces such as cotton, wheat… and generate by-products that are used for the feeding of urban livestock. Also, urban livestock provides manure highly demanded by urban and rural market gardeners. Thus, the city drives the development of urban agriculture but so do rural agriculture by providing inputs to urban farming activities (and vice-versa). This kind of interactions are often forgotten/invisible but engender many linkages between urban and rural inhabitants and sustain different form of agriculture and employment both in urban and rural areas.
-Space-time analysis are relevant to understand the mechanism of urbanization and rural transformation in the urban fringe (issue of Land Use): land planning policies impact seriously not only the transformation of farming activities, but also the type of actors who develop it. Tacit governance systems influence who and how people can have access to land or protect their land from urbanization processes. In these processes, many families, often the poorest and the ones with less political influence, loose their land and have to leave farming activities, as well explained in the document. But wealthy families with political influence sometimes benefits from urban planning policies by having access to protected agricultural land of high value (where they invest in new farming activities). This has to be taken into account when taking about governance: informal forms of governance can have a great impact on the outputs of official planning policies.
Also, when talking about urban policies it is also important to take into the account the ones that put constraints on farming activities and have impacts on periurban agriculture. For example, in Argentina, raising preoccupations toward the use of pesticides/herbicides led to the adoption of municipal orders in many cities that prohibit the use of these inputs in a certain radius around urban settlements. Many issues raised then: the quality of the produces, the delocalization of farms farther from the city (for farmers who prefer to leave rather than changing their farming practices) which raises issues on local food systems, changes in the organizations of the markets, distrust of consumers… It is also the opportunity to develop new circuits, new forms of productions and new links between producers and consumers. Hence, another question that has to be asked is the model of production/commercialization existing in the territories, how they coexist and how they impact rural transformation and rural-urban linkages.
Dear colleagues,
Territorial approaches and city-region approaches are really relevant to understand links between urbanization, rural transformation and food security. I would like to mention the approach by the “agri-urban system” (concept develop by the French research program DAUME) to understand the complexity of city-agriculture interactions at a regional scale. I used this approach in a research in the area of Bobo-Dioulasso, in Burkina Faso and it appeared to be really adapted to think in a holistic way of city-agriculture and urban-rural linkages. My focus was first urban agriculture but then, this framework brought me to the analysis urban-rural relationships of many different types. Indeed, the analysis was based on a systemic approach based on the intersection of three groups of interactions: i) spatial and historical interactions between nature, agriculture and the city, ii) the interactions between the urban system and agriculture, and iii) the interactions within the urban agricultural system (within the urban area and between urban and rural area). This is to identify how a variety of relationships between city and agriculture are developed and what is at stake in the existence and permanence of the agri-urban system (which is a component of the urban food system).
Based on this, I would like to mention 2 aspects that seem important and that I did not see clearly in the document:
Also, when talking about urban policies it is also important to take into the account the ones that put constraints on farming activities and have impacts on periurban agriculture. For example, in Argentina, raising preoccupations toward the use of pesticides/herbicides led to the adoption of municipal orders in many cities that prohibit the use of these inputs in a certain radius around urban settlements. Many issues raised then: the quality of the produces, the delocalization of farms farther from the city (for farmers who prefer to leave rather than changing their farming practices) which raises issues on local food systems, changes in the organizations of the markets, distrust of consumers… It is also the opportunity to develop new circuits, new forms of productions and new links between producers and consumers. Hence, another question that has to be asked is the model of production/commercialization existing in the territories, how they coexist and how they impact rural transformation and rural-urban linkages.