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In 2008, the world’s urban population outnumbered its rural population for the first time in history. By 2030, 60 percent of the world’s population is expected to live in cities. This urbanization process goes together closely with growing urban poverty and food insecurity. Currently, approximately one-third of the world’s population...

The ongoing exodus of rural people to urban areas in developing countries has led to rapid and massive increases in the urban population. Often rural emigration results in the transfer of poverty, hunger and malnutrition from the countryside to towns and cities, a process known as the “urbanization of poverty”....

The Farmer Field School (FFS) is a process of group-based learning originally developed by FAO in the late 1980s to promote Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in Asian rice fields. At field schools, farmers were able to deepen their knowledge of agroecology, particularly the relationship between insect pests and beneficial insects,...

Urban residents depend on markets for almost all of their food purchases. Urban population growth, rising levels of urban poverty and issues affecting food supply and distribution, to and within cities, have four major consequences for urban food security. Urban and peri-urban horticulture (UPH) can be an important source of...

Urban and peri-urban horticulture represents a significant part of local supply of perishable produce of good nutritional value in many developing countries. It also plays an important socio-economic role, providing urban dwellers with sources of employment and income. However, it is important to identify the food safety implications of UPH...