FAO Supports Urban Agriculture

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has adopted a new tactic to curb hunger and malnutrition, and it is set in the world’s cities where most of the global population growth is expected. FAO is advocating “urban agriculture” as one element in urban food supply systems, in response to the surging size of the cities of the developing world. Under its ongoing “Food for the Cities” program, an interdisciplinary initiative, FAO is helping a number of cities to support urban and peri-urban agriculture so that they can increasingly contribute to the job of feeding themselves.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, FAO is working alongside city authorities to help develop 800 hectares of urban land in several cities into allotment gardens, while in the Colombian cities of Bogota and Medellin, a novel approach is being experimented by FAO to address the issue of slums. “This project is giving a whole new dimension to the concept of 'home-grown'," says Juan Izquierdo, FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Officer in Latin America.

To read more: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2007/1000484/index.html.