Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
based and not punitive. Incentive structures which help to encourage good
practices and discourage bad ones are critical but, unfortunately, rare. Most
often, 'bad' practices are punished without any other feasible options being
put forward. Central to this is the acknowledgement, once and for all, that
UA is an active part of the city economy. The case studies provide some
insight into existing policies as cities wrestle with the pros and cons of UA.
The case of Zaria, Nigeria (Nsangu) exposes the weakness of master planning
in di
cult policy arenas; Dakar, Senegal (Chaudhuri) suggests that some
authorities are not working in harmony in developing UA policy; while the
case study of Harare (Mutonodzo) presents a more nuanced - and probably
realistic - view of policy makers having divergent opinions on UA. There are,
in sum, both positive and negative attributes to the practice. As the primary
driver of UA is financial, economic incentives are probably the most effective
way to encourage responsible UA. Meanwhile, health risk is the most negative
attribute of UA and policy must be more restrictive to mitigate risk. Whatever
the case may be, and herein lies the lesson, a balanced approach between
encouragement of certain practices and the restriction of others is needed.
The good news is that evidence proves governments are starting to listen.
The declarations of Harare and La Paz demonstrate the increased buy-in of
decision makers for UA - and such declarations are leading to actions. Since
2000, for example, Peru, Brazil, Ghana and China have created national
sectoral policy programmes on UA. This is remarkable for a sector that was
hardly recognized a decade ago.
All of these questions feed into the type of policy used by municipal
authorities regarding UA. For instance, in the case of poverty reduction, cities
must look at specific interventions targeting the poor. To increase food
availability, a policy that targets wealthier farmers in larger peri-urban farms
may be more important. In fact, the more we learn about UA, the more
nuanced policy support becomes.
Climate change
The failure to find consensus on how to address climate change, combined
with the increase in resources available for both the mitigation and
adaptation work related to climate change, has impacted on discussions
around the whole issue of the environment. While energy is at the centre of
the debate around climate change, one should consider what the energy
arguments are in favour of UA. Certainly less transportation of food from
rural areas to cities directly reduces energy needs. Also, the marginal but still-
relevant use of rooftops for agricultural production has an important
influence on energy conservation. UA increases reliance on local sources of
food instead of supporting the ongoing dependency upon the transportation
of products from distant places.
Meanwhile, evidence is growing that climate change is reducing the
availability of fertile arable land due to desertification. The Millennium
Ecosystem Report suggests that an estimated 10-20 per cent of dry land is
affected by land degradation (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). This
