We are pleased to bring you this issue of Land Reform, Land Settlement and Cooperatives which contains several articles on urban and peri-urban agriculture. The urban and peri-urban environment as a whole constitutes an important production environment with clear socio-economic and environmental contexts both for the food-insecure and entrepreneurs. In the face of increasing urbanization and the consequent growth in demand for food by town dwellers, together with increasing numbers of urban poor who have inadequate access to food, FAO may be justified in taking a fresh and more holistic look at this production environment. The articles presented on this topic have been produced through the active cooperation of different units within FAO, particularly the Marketing and Rural Finance Service (AGSM), with which we (the Rural Development Division) are collaborating at present.
The final two articles in this issue treat private and communal resource tenure and the evolution of tenure in sub-Saharan Africa. These articles are the result of a joint effort with the Land Tenure Center of Wisconsin University, USA. In the following issues we will publish further studies on the same topic, thus contributing directly towards the understanding of such systems in different national contexts.
We hope you will find this issue useful. Your comments are always welcome, as it is only through your participation and the sharing of your ideas and research that we can make this bulletin responsive to the needs of FAO’s wide audience.