This new issue of Perspective highlights the informal arrangements between crop farmers, livestock farmers, agro-industry and the authorities that sustain urban agriculture in Africa. It argues in favour of taking account of such arrangements in the support policies from which this type of agriculture benefits and in town planning schemes. Urban agriculture has developed significantly in Africa since independence and the exodus towards towns. Moreover, over the past twenty years or so, many international organizations and programmes have stressed the many advantages of urban agriculture in developing countries: it creates jobs and thus income, it produces food, and it improves the environment and living conditions.