Cities of despair – or opportunity? · economic opportunity but by high birth rates and a mass influx of rural people seeking to escape hunger, poverty and insecurity. Most of the

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© FAO 2010

Cities of despair – or opportunity?Challenge: to steer urbanization from its current, unsustainable pathand towards greener cities that offer choice, opportunity and hope

GROWING GREENER CITIES 1

Figure 1. Population growth in the developing world, 1950-2050 (millions)By 2025, more than half the developingworld’s population will be urban

Towns and cities in the world’s developing countries are growingon an unprecedented scale. Ten years ago, an estimated40 percent of the developing world’s population – or 2 billionpeople – lived in urban areas. Since then, their numbers have

expanded almost twice as fast as total population growth, to more than2.5 billion. That is the equivalent to almostfive new cities the size of Beijing, every12 months. By 2025, more than half thedeveloping world’s population – 3.5 billionpeople – will be urban.

While urbanization in Europe and NorthAmerica took centuries, spurred on byindustrialization and steady increases in percapita income, in the developing world it willoccur in the space of two or threegenerations. In many developing countries,urban growth is being driven not byeconomic opportunity but by high birth ratesand a mass influx of rural people seeking toescape hunger, poverty and insecurity.

Most of the world’s fastest growing citiesare found in low-income countries of Asiaand Africa with young populations. Over thenext 10 years, the current number of urban dwellers in sub-Saharan Africa isexpected to grow by almost 45 percent, from 320 million to 460 million.Kinshasa, capital of one of the world’s poorest countries, is now the world’sfastest growing future megacity. By 2025, the urban population of least-developed countries in Asia will have grown from 90 million to a projected

These pages areillustrated with designsfrom the KigaliConceptual Master Plan,a long-term frameworkfor sustainabledevelopment of Rwanda’scapital. The planenvisions a city set amidgreenbelts and zonesreserved for urbanagriculture, and openspaces with communitygardens.

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150 million, and Dhaka is expected to be the world’s fifth largest city, with21 million inhabitants.

Urbanization in low-income countries is accompanied by high levels ofpoverty, unemployment and food insecurity. Worldwide, an estimated onebillion people live in crowded slums, without access to basic health, waterand sanitation services. Around 30 percent of the developing world’s urbanpopulation – 770 million people – are unemployed or “working poor”, withincomes below official poverty lines.

Those urban poor spend most of their income just to feed themselves. Yettheir children suffer levels ofmalnutrition that are often as highas those found in rural areas. Tosurvive, millions of slum dwellershave resorted to growing their ownfood on every piece of availableland: in backyards, along rivers,roads and railways, and underpower lines.

The growth of urban slumsoutpaces urban growth by a widemargin. By 2020, the proportion ofthe urban population living inpoverty could reach 45 percent, or1.4 billion people. By then,85 percent of poor people in Latin

America, and almost half of those in Africa and Asia, will be concentrated intowns and cities.

That prospect has been described as “the new population bomb” and anightmare for governance: sprawling, degraded and impoverished cities withlarge, vulnerable populations that are socially excluded, young andunemployed.

2 GROWING GREENER CITIES

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Figure 2. Population growth in selected cities, 2000-2025 (millions)Megacities of the future are growing fastest in Africa and Asia

2000 2025:Projection(increase in percent)

Abrighter future forthe world’sdeveloping cities isboth imperative and

possible. Historically, citieshave been places not of misery and despairbut of opportunity – for economies of scale,employment and improved living standards,especially for rural people seeking a betterlife. They have served as engines of socialprogress and national economicdevelopment.

Creating the conditions to realize thatpotential – in Kinshasa, Dhaka and othergrowing towns and cities across thedeveloping world – is crucial now and will bemore so in the decades ahead. The challengeis to steer urbanization from its current,unsustainable path, towards sustainable,greener cities that offer their inhabitantschoice, opportunity and hope.

The concept of “green cities” – designedfor resilience, self-reliance, and social,economic and environmental sustainability –

is usually associated with urbanplanning in more developedcountries. It suggests high-techeco-architecture, bicyclegreenways and zero-waste,

“closed loop” industries. However, it has a special application, and

significantly different social and economicdimensions, in low-income developingcountries. There, the core principles ofgreener cities can guide urban developmentthat fosters food security, decent work andincome, a clean environment and goodgovernance for all citizens.

A starting point for growing greener citiesis to recognize and integrate into urbanpolicy and planning many of the creativesolutions that the urban poor themselveshave developed to strengthen theircommunities and improve their lives. Oneof those solutions – and an essential featureof green city planning in developed, and agrowing number of developing, countries –is urban and peri-urban horticulture.


Not new: The Incas’ citadel of Machu Picchuin Peru included a residential area

and a zone of intensively farmed terraces

The promiseof greener

citiesUrban development that

provides food security, decentwork and income,

a clean environmentand good governance

for all citizens


Urban and peri-urban horticulture(or UPH) is the cultivation of awide range of crops – includingfruit, vegetables, roots, tubers and

ornamental plants – within cities and townsand in their surrounding areas.

It is estimated that 130 million urbanresidents in Africa and 230 million in LatinAmerica engage in agriculture, mainlyhorticulture, to provide food for theirfamilies or to earn income from sales.

While the urban poor, particularly thosearriving from rural areas, have long practisedhorticulture as a livelihood and survivalstrategy, in many countries the sector is stilllargely informal, usually precarious andsometimes illegal.

But that is changing rapidly. Over the past decade, governments in

20 countries have sought FAO’s assistance inremoving barriers and providing incentives,inputs and training to low-income “cityfarmers”, from the burgeoning metropolises ofWest and Central Africa to the low-incomebarrios of Managua, Caracas and Bogotá.

Through multidisciplinary projects*, FAO has helped governments and cityadministrations to optimize policies,

institutional frameworks and support servicesfor UPH, and to improve horticulturalproduction systems. It has promoted irrigatedcommercial market gardening on urbanperipheries, simple hydroponic micro-gardensin slum areas, and green rooftops in denselypopulated city centres.

The FAO programme, and similarinitiatives by partner organizations, havedemonstrated how horticulture helpsempower the urban poor, and contributes totheir food security and nutrition. But it canalso help grow greener cities that are betterable to cope with social and environmentalchallenges, from slum improvement andmanagement of urban wastes to job creationand community development.

* FAO-assisted projects for UPH development have been funded byBelgium, Canada, Colombia, France, Italy, Norway, Spain andVenezuela

How horticulture helpsgrow greener cities

People have food security when theyare able to grow enough food, or buyenough food, to meet their dailyneeds for an active, healthy life. In

many of the 21st century’s developing cities,all of those conditions of food security arethreatened.

Poor urban households spend up to 80percent of their income on food. That makesthem highly vulnerable when food prices riseor their incomes fall. FAO estimates that inthe wake of global food price inflation in2007/2008, and the subsequent economicrecession, the number of chronically hungryin the world has risen by at least 100 millionto more than one billion people. The greatestincrease has been among the urban poor,women and children.

Access to nutritious food is a keydimension of food security. In Africa andAsia, urban households spend up to50 percent of their food budgets on cheap“convenience” foods often deficient in thevitamins and minerals essential for health.One study found that vitamin A deficiency, acause of blindness, was more severe amongDhaka slum dwellers than among even therural poor.

Fruit and vegetables are the richest naturalsources of micronutrients. But in developingcountries, daily fruit and vegetableconsumption is just 20-50 percent ofFAO/World Health Organization (WHO)recommendations. Urban meals rich in low-cost fats and sugars are also responsible forrising levels of obesity and overweight. InIndia, diet-related chronic diseases, such asdiabetes, are a growing health problem, andmainly in urban areas.


Food and nutrition securityGrowing fruit and vegetables in and around cities increases the supply of fresh, nutritious produce and improves the urban poor’s economic access to food

Figure 3. Number of undernourished, 1969-71 to 2009

The greatest increase has been amongthe urban poor, women and children

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Urban and peri-urban horticulture helpsdeveloping cities meet all those challenges.First, it boosts the physical supply of fresh,nutritious produce, available year round.Second, it improves the urban poor’seconomic access to food when theirhousehold production of fruit and vegetablesreduces their food bills, and when growersearn a living from sales (see Sustainablelivelihoods, page 8).

Urban food security. Intensive horticultureproduction on urban peripheries makessense. But as cities grow, valuableagricultural land is lost to housing, industryand infrastructure (Accra eats up an


estimated 2 600 hectares of farm land everyyear). Result: production of fresh food isbeing pushed further into rural areas. Thecost of transport, packing and refrigeration,the poor state of rural roads, and heavylosses in transit add to the scarcity and costof fruit and vegetables in urban markets.

That is why China has integrated foodproduction into urban development since the1960s. Today, more than half of Beijing’svegetable supply comes from the city’s ownmarket gardens, and it costs less thanproduce trucked from more distant areas.Horticulture in and around Hanoi producesmore than 150 000 tonnes of fruit andvegetables a year. In Cuba, which haspromoted intensive UPH since the early1990s, the sector accounts for 60 percent ofhorticultural production – and Cubans’ percapita intake of fruit and vegetables exceedsthe FAO/WHO recommended minimum.

As urbanization accelerates in sub-SaharanAfrica, many countries are seeking todevelop their commercial horticulturesectors to ensure urban food security. Oftenthe first step is to legalize and protect longestablished small-scale market gardens thathave sprung up without planning or permits.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo,FAO advised on measures that regularizedtitles to 1 600 ha of garden areas operated bysome 20 000 full-time growers in five cities.The project introduced improved vegetablevarieties and installed or upgraded40 irrigation structures, which extendedwater availability throughout the year.

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Figure 4. Daily fruit and vegetable consumption in selected countriesof Latin America and the Caribbean, 2005 (grams/capita/day)Guess which country has promoted intensive urbanhorticulture since the early 1990s

Bolivia Colombia Cuba Guatemala Haiti Honduras Jamaica Nicaragua Peru

* FAO/WHO recommended minimum

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To ensure the quality and safety ofproduce, 450 growers’ associations weretrained in good agricultural practices,including the use of organic fertilizer andbio-pesticides. Market gardens in the capital,Kinshasa, now produce an estimated 75 000to 85 000 tonnes of vegetables a year, or65 percent of the city’s supply.

Household food security. FAO’s programmefor UPH also promotes home, school andcommunity gardens, where the urban poorgrow their own fruit and vegetables and earnincome from the sale of surpluses. In thePlurinational State of Bolivia, FAO helped tointroduce community greenhouses andmicro-gardens in the municipality of El Alto,where 70 percent of residents live in povertyand 40 percent of children under five aremalnourished.

Some 1 500 families were trained to grow awide variety of vegetables, herbs, medicinalplants and fruits in small, low-costgreenhouses. The result was a generalimprovement in child nutrition and familysavings (averaging $US30 a month), whichwere spent on eggs and meat. Similarbenefits were reported in Caracas after the


government installed 4 000 micro-gardens inthe city’s poor barrios. In Ecuador, vegetablemicro-gardens at 54 child developmentcentres feed 2 500 children and earn enoughfrom sales to be self-supporting.

FAO helped women in poor neighbour-hoods of Dakar to start micro-gardens intheir backyards and on patios and rooftops.Per square metre, the gardens produce eachyear up to 30 kg of tomatoes, lettuce andbeans, which has led to a doubling ofvegetable consumption among participatingfamilies.

School gardens are a proven means ofpromoting child nutrition. They familiarizechildren with horticulture, provide fresh fruitand vegetables for healthy school meals, helpteachers develop nutrition courses and, whenreplicated at home, improve family nutritionas well. Over the past 10 years, FAO hasprovided tools, seeds and training toestablish thousands of school gardens inmore than 30 countries.

In Bolivia, FAO helped train slumdwellers to grow fruit and vegetablesin low-cost greenhouses


Sustainable livelihoodsUrban and peri-urban horticulture provides livelihoods that are resilient to economic downturnsand food price hikes, and contribute to cities’ economic development

of their urban populations by 2020. Urban and peri-urban horticulture offers a

pathway out of poverty. It has low start-upcosts, short production cycles, and highyields per unit of time and unit of land andwater. Its produce has high market value.Because it is very labour intensive,horticulture creates employment for thejobless, particularly people newly arrivedfrom rural areas.

Of the estimated 800 million peopleengaged worldwide in urban and peri-urban

The International LabourOrganization estimates that 180million of the developing world’surban population are jobless and

another 550 million earn just enough tosurvive in the informal economy. Over thenext 10 years, almost 500 million people,many of them from rural areas, will enter thejobs market. Unless developing countriescreate more decent, productive workopportunities, the number of unemployedand working poor could reach 45 percent

Figure 5. Population with incomes below national poverty line, 2005 (millions)By 2020, the proportion of the urban population living in poverty could reach 45 percent

Source: World Bank

Sub-SaharanAfricaTotal population764.3Population belownational poverty line557.2

North Africaand Middle EastTotal population406.5Population belownational poverty line68.6

South AsiaTotal population1 497.2Population belownational poverty line1 093

East Asiaand PacificTotal population1 554.3Population belownational poverty line601.5

Latin Americaand CaribbeanTotal population556.5Population belownational poverty line95.1

agriculture, 200 million produce for themarket and employ another 150 millionpeople full-time. The sector provides directlyan estimated 117 000 jobs in Havana andincome for 150 000 low-income families, or24 percent of all households, in Hanoi. FAOcalculates that the UPH programme in theDemocratic Republic of the Congo hascreated about 40 jobs for every hectarecultivated, or 66 000 jobs, benefitingindirectly some 330 000 people.

Gardening can be profitable even on a verysmall scale. In Dakar, women kept 30 percentof the vegetables grown in their micro-gardens for home consumption, and soldsurpluses through family kiosks, earning theequivalent of a labourer’s wages. In the slumareas of Lima, women practise UPH part-time to earn extra income, and still have timefor household tasks and child care.

FAO encourages the use of micro-credit tohelp growers expand production and startnew enterprises. In Lubumbashi, in theDemocratic Republic of the Congo, 6 000female gardeners used loans to buy inputsand equipment. As their incomes grew, theyinvested savings in small-scale livestock,vegetable processing and dress-making. Thechildren of Lubumbashi market gardenersnow eat on average three meals a day,compared to “less than two” before theproject began.

Because the horticulture commodity chainis long and complex, it generatesemployment in production, input supply,marketing and value-addition from producer

to consumer. About 10 percent of Hanoi’sskilled labour force is directly engaged inagriculture, while thousands of labourers findwork in production of inputs (for example, inseedling nurseries), and food processing anddistribution. In Argentina, Brazil andUruguay, UPH has created jobs in a varietyof marketing systems, including communityand farmers’ markets and door-to-doordelivery of food baskets.

UPH can play an important role instrategies for Local Economic Development(LED). On urban peripheries and in otherareas with land suitable for crop production,horticulture provides a focus for LEDprogrammes, which build on thecomparative advantages of local areas topromote economic growth, employment andpoverty reduction.


The horticulture commodity chaingenerates employment in production,input supply, marketing and value-addition from producer to consumer


Safe, clean environmentLinking waste management to horticulture helps to keep the urban environment clean,reduce health hazards and boost production of fresh food

contaminated drinking water is a majorcause of child deaths.

Garbage is left to rot in the streets ordumped unsorted into landfills, adding toground water contamination. Industry andtraffic produce air pollution, responsible inJakarta for a third of all respiratory illnesses.The urban poor face other environmentalhazards: settlements built on marginal landare vulnerable to landslides and flash floods.

Urban and peri-urban horticulture canturn waste into a productive resource. InNorth America, cities routinely recycleorganic waste and offer it to citizens ascompost for home gardens. In Addis Ababa,a private company collects each day some3.5 tonnes of organic waste and converts itinto almost two tonnes of high-qualityfertilizer. Cuba’s national programme forUPH prohibits chemical fertilizer in citiesand encourages instead organic composting.

Using wastewater for horticulture is moreproblematic: pathogens on vegetables grownwith untreated wastewater can causegastrointestinal ailments and even cholera.But, when appropriately treated foragricultural re-use, wastewater fromdomestic sources can supply most of the

Pollution in rapidly expanding citiesposes a serious threat to publichealth. Lacking adequate seweragesystems and treatment plants, many

cities discharge daily huge volumes of rawhuman wastes and industrial effluent into theenvironment. In slums, diarrhoea caused by

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Figure 6. Urban waste management, by region(percent)Only one third of wastewateris treated in the world’s developingcities

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nutrients needed to grow fruit trees,vegetables and ornamental plants.

To reduce the risk of contamination, FAOhelps train vegetable growers in the safehandling of wastewater and selection ofsuitable crops. In Gaza and the West Bank, itintroduced low-cost treatment units thatallowed residents to irrigate gardens andorchards with the greywater discharged fromkitchens and showers.

As competition for urban water intensifies,wastewater recycling for horticulture needsto be incorporated in urban planning. Onepromising option for developing cities isshallow stabilization ponds that use algae


In Cairo, rooftops plantedwith vegetables are 7° C coolerthan those next door

and bacteria to eliminate pathogens whileretaining nutrients.

UPH has other environmental benefits. Itreduces the need to transport produce intocities from distant rural areas, generatingfuel savings, fewer carbon dioxide emissionsand less air pollution. It lowers citytemperatures – in Cairo, rooftops plantedwith vegetables are 7° C cooler than thosenext door – and, when practised ongreenbelts, improves landscapes and citizens’quality of life. On Peru’s arid coast,horticulture has helped to “green” manymunicipalities.

Greenbelts also stabilize environmentallyfragile land, such as hillsides and river banks,and protect them from being used for unsaferesidential development. In Bogotá, Hanoiand Sao Paulo in Brazil, city gardens helpmaintain good soil structure and porosity,which improves aquifer recharging andreduces runoff, thus preventing landslidesand flooding.

Figure 7. Solid waste produced by the cityof Thiruvananthapuram, India (percent)Plenty of raw material. Organic waste can be convertedinto high quality bio-compost

Source: Nair and Sridhar, Cleaning up Kerala, Danish Books, Delhi (2005)

50.5 Organic waste

15.5 Paper, glass, textiles

9.8 Plastic, metal

14.6 Ash, sand

9.6 Other


Good governanceBuilding a sustainable UPH sector provides a laboratory for innovative approaches to urban development, and examples of good governance in action

The United Nations HumanSettlements Programme saysthe “unmanageability” of urbanareas is due more to failures

of governance and urban planning than citysize. It calls for action to strengthen thecapacity of local government to plan forfuture growth, and for integrated governancethat improves coordination among publicservices at all levels.

In many countries, UPH goesunrecognized in agricultural policies andurban planning. Growers often operatewithout permits from municipal authorities,or on land granted under customary law.Since it is officially “invisible”, the sectorreceives no public assistance or oversight.Growers with insecure title to their plots andlimited or no access to inputs and extensionservices have little incentive to invest inincreased production.

FAO’s approach to urban and peri-urbanhorticulture underscores the need totransform UPH into a fully acknowledgedcommercial and professional activity,integrated into national agriculturaldevelopment strategies, food and nutritionprogrammes, and urban planning.

In Latin America, Argentina, Brazil andCuba have adopted national plans andpolicies to actively promote UPH. Brazil’sMinistry for Social Development andCombating Hunger sets urban agricultureguidelines. In Egypt, FAO helped thegovernment launch a “Green food fromgreen roofs” programme that encouragedCairo residents to grow their own vegetablesin beds of rice husks, sand and peat moss.

Figure 8. Kigali Conceptual Master Plan (detail)In Rwanda, the city of Kigali hassought FAO advice on measuresaimed at integrating UPH intothe city’s master development plan


The Democratic Republic of the Congohas created an effective institutionalstructure for national UPH development.Municipal committees chaired by citymayors manage the process of regularizingtitles to land for horticulture and integratingUPH into urban planning, while thecountry’s national UPH support serviceprovides technical advice to growers througha network of offices in 11 provincial capitals.

Formal, government-recognizedprogrammes for urban agriculture now alsoexist in most cities of South Africa. Themunicipality of Cape Town suppliescommunity gardening groups with “start-upkits” – tools, seeds and compost – and accessto skills training. Nairobi and Accra haveboth created municipal agricultural

Brazil’s Ministry for Social Developmentand Combating Hunger sets urbanagriculture guidelines

departments. In Hanoi, a range of publicservices, including 100 plant protection andextension staff, support the city’s thrivingurban agriculture sector.

UPH development fosters closercollaboration among government andmunicipal departments. In Windhoek, FAOworked with the ministries for youth, localgovernment and gender equality on aproject for young unemployed. In Kampala,specialists in health, agriculture and townplanning worked together in framing newordinances that removed old barriers to“city farming”.

As part of Bolivia’s national povertyreduction strategy, the municipality of ElAlto, near La Paz, launched a “green plan”which assigned 3 700 ha for parks, gardensand horticulture, and created a UPH unitwithin the municipality’s environmentdepartment. In Rwanda, the city of Kigalihas sought FAO advice on measures aimedat integrating UPH into the city’s masterdevelopment plan.

The Urban Center is a mixed-use zonesimilar to the High Density Zone, in buildinguse and size, but with a concentration ofregional public and cultural facilities


Healthy communitiesOrchards and vegetable gardens provide excluded groups with food, income, a focus for shared enterprise and a constructive channel for young people’s energy

Hunger, poverty, exploitation andlack of hope can lead to highrates of crime, prostitution, childneglect and drug abuse in

developing cities. The young are particularlyvulnerable. In the developing world as awhole, almost half the population is under25 years old; in sub-Saharan Africa,43 percent is under 15. As high birth ratesand rural migration add millions to the youthpopulation over the coming decade, urbanfrustration could reach boiling point.

By providing food, income and a focus forshared enterprise, urban and peri-urbanhorticulture helps build happier, healthiercommunities. It integrates excluded and

vulnerable groups into the urban socialfabric, and offers a constructive channel foryoung people’s energy.

In Colombia, for example, the “Bogotáwithout indifference” community gardeningprogramme extends the benefits of vegetablegardening to former combatants, the elderly,female prison inmates, the disabled andpeople affected by HIV/AIDS.

In the Nairobi slum of Mathare, youngmen with a past as petty thieves now earn adecent living growing and selling vegetablesto their community. Income helps pay forfees to attend night school. Communitygardens in Buenos Aires are described as“symbols of vitality and growth” in

Figure 9. World population age structure, 2007(millions)In the developing world, almost halfthe population is aged under 25 years

AfricaUnder 25 years590.8

AsiaUnder 25 years1 837.8

neighbourhoods long known for crime andpoverty.

Evidence from cities around the worldunderscores the positive impact of urban andperi-urban horticulture on women, youthand children. Among the benefits cited byparticipants in a community micro-gardensproject in Senegal was social networkingamong previously isolated housewives.

In outlying areas of Mexico City, womenemployed as domestic servants in the citycentre were leaving home at 4 a.m. andreturning at night. During their absencemany of their children frequented streetgangs. By switching to horticulture, they notonly found a new source of livelihood, butwere able to dedicate more time to child care.

In Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where anentire generation of parents has been lost toAIDS, an NGO has started school gardensand backyard plots for orphan-headedhouseholds, linked to a health clinic.Grandmothers have formed a tightly knitsocial circle that provides care and support,


and school attendance has increased by25 percent.

In Namibia’s dusty Katatura township,FAO helped a gardening group, called“Hope”, to establish a horticulture trainingcentre for others in their community.

FAO says urban and peri-urbanhorticulture should have an important placein slum upgrading schemes and the design ofnew neighbourhoods for the urban poor. Aswell as income and food, orchards andvegetable gardens offer a healthy urban livingenvironment, a connection to the rural andthe natural – and the pleasure derived fromhands in soil and watering green plantsround sunset.

Young men with a past as pettythieves now earn a decentliving growing and sellingvegetables to their community

Source: United Nations Statistics Division

Latin America and CaribbeanUnder 25 years269.7

North America, Europe, OceaniaUnder 25 years344.2

Produced with a contribution from the Belgian Development Cooperation. Belgium is a primary partner of FAO’s Programme for Urban and Peri-urban Horticulture. It has provided funding for FAO projects in the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Burundi,

the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire and Namibia and for an ongoing global initiative aimed at disseminating lessons learned.

Illustrations from the Kigali Conceptual Master Plan provided by OZ Architecture – www.ozarch.comText/Design: Graeme Thomas and Giulio Sansonetti • Cover by Giancarlo de Pol

FAO’s Programme for Urban and Peri-urban Horticulture (UPH)To help developing countries meet the challenges of massive and rapid urbanization,FAO launched in 2001 a multidisciplinary initiative, Food for the Cities, which aimsat ensuring the access of urban populations to safe food and to healthy and secureenvironments. FAO’s Programme for Urban and Peri-urban Horticulture is a keycomponent of the Food for the Cities initiative. It helps governments and cityadministrations to optimize policies, institutional frameworks and support servicesfor UPH, to improve production and marketing systems, and to enhance thehorticulture value chain.

Contact:Programme for Urban and Peri-urban Horticulture Plant Production and Protection Division (AGP)Food and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsViale delle Terme di Caracalla00153 Rome, Italy

email: [email protected]: www.fao.org/ag/agp/greenercities/

Food and Agriculture Organizationof the United Nations (FAO)Viale delle Terme di Caracalla00153 Rome, Italywww.fao.org

How urban and peri-urbanhorticulture contributes to:� food and nutrition security� sustainable livelihoods � safe,clean environment � good

governance � healthy communities

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Cities of despair – or opportunity? · economic opportunity but by high birth rates and a mass influx of rural people seeking to escape hunger, poverty and insecurity. Most of the