Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
dollars per month, whereas the financial gains in the latter might be in the
tens of thousands of dollars per month. Smaller-scale farming can be of
profound importance to an individual household's economy, while the latter is
making a significant contribution to the community as a whole.
The question strengthens the claim that producers urgently need better
access to credit if they are to increase their production e
ciency such that
women - who are often very active either as farmers or marketers - can
improve their access to financial assets. Despite this perhaps obvious
conclusion, there have been few direct and strong economic analyses
conducted related to the value of UA. Moreover, such analyses must be
corroborated with the economic value generated through other uses of the
land (such as housing development).
The same can be said of urban land markets. Mara and Feachem (2001)
have famously surmised that the poor occupy land valued at US$9 trillion
worldwide. This value is locked up since the very same poor often occupy
their lands illegally or with limited tenure. What would happen if there was a
semblance of security created so that this land could be used to leverage
grants, credit and access to the formal banking systems and agricultural
support? The issue of credit as it relates to investment in UA could feasibly
dominate discussions about how this sector will be developed in the future.
Pollution management
The effects of pollution and the relationship between UA and the environment
are much better understood than they were ten years ago. The work of many
international organizations - notably, the Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) system, including International
Development Research Centre (IDRC) partners - has led to a large body of
work on waste management and UA. Readers will note this topic includes
several chapters on wastewater and one on solid waste. These are important
and well-explored topics related to UA and are studied for good reason,
primarily because management options for water and solid waste are so
closely related to urban farming. These wastes hold enormous monetary value
(Dreschel et al, 2007) and reflection upon them challenges us to ask: How can
we optimize the capture of these valuable resources?
Other types of pollution are only occasionally considered. Cars are an
inescapable fact of the 21st century city - however, with few exceptions, air
pollution is considered not more than an irritant and few people explore the
direct links between air quality and automobiles. In fact, evidence exists that
air pollution has a negative effect on crop yields (Agrawal et al, 2003).
However, such definite links are far from adequate enough to convince policy
makers to control vehicles or manage emissions. It is important that research
be initiated to explore the link between vehicular emissions and the food
chain, which is associated with the growing work on air pollution and its
impact on human health. Likewise, although a body of work on pesticides,
organic chemical pollutants and urban food-production exists, the response to
this potentially significant threat is negligible. The point here is that research
