ABSTRACT. Animal welfare of production animals is a key issue in the societal debate concerning Dutch agriculture. From about the year 2000, the Dutch government made the choice to stimulate systems innovation in animal production chains. This implied supporting a series of projects in which long term ambitions were combined with interactivity and stakeholder participation. From this, the RIO-approach (Reflective Interactive Design, Bos et al., 2012) was developed. The RIO-approach comprises a structured series of stakeholder analyses, systems analyses and systems design, targeting new/niche or radically improved production systems. Project activities are performed in the midst of the stakeholder context, either interactive or with strong participation of actors from chain, government and NGO’s. RIO-project activities address not only design of physical systems (such as animal housing) but also market arrangements and/or alliances between stakeholder groups.

As a casus study, Pigs in Comfort Class, an early RIO project (2001-2009) on animal welfare, was re-analysed against the background of four theoretical frameworks on collaboration among stakeholder groups. Theories and guidelines from 1) Strategic Niche Management, 2) Boundary work, 3) Stakeholder management and 4) Strong and Weak Ties were projected on the Comfort Class initiative. Key conclusion from the analysis is that the specific combination of stakeholders (having ‘weak ties’), the joint product (their joint ‘boundary object’) and the creation of clear cut small initiatives (practical farmers testing in ‘niches’) provided a context where non conventional research results were readily accepted and used as a part of practical initiatives and farmers experimentation.

The implication of the analysis is that combining ‘classical’ animal science activities with stakeholder involvement in a well planned innovation program is effective. The project reframed animal welfare from a legal obligation towards a value laden market ambition and opened up the practical acceptance of changed husbandry practices for a NGO-labelled market product, currently comprising about 1 million pigs/year.

ABSTRACT. According to the literature on regime transition, niches are sources of innovation that may lead to the transformation of the dominant regime, if processes at other level of the system – the landscape and the mainstream regime - are supportive (Loorbach and Rotmans, 2006). A focus on actors involved in the transition process and the analysis of their specific role in knowledge networks can help assessing the robustness of a specific niche and its growth potential (Hoogma et al. 2002). Knowledge systems, and in particular the dynamics of local and expert knowledge, have in fact a key role in innovation models. Different trajectories characterize the transition process, leading to different results: from co-optation and gain in efficiency of the mainstream regime to its radical transformation.

In this paper we utilize tools drawn from Social Network Analysis to investigate the knowledge networks of six innovative organic farms involved in participatory plant breeding programmes in Italy, Portugal and France. Relational data were collected thorugh participative methods, then analyzed in order to understand how the six farms' transition trajectories can be defined and characterized from a multilevel perspective.

Our assumption is that leading actors in the farms' knowledge networks will influence a specific transition trajectory, shaping its direction and transformative potential. Three main trajectories were identified on the basis of the analysis of farms' knowledge networks, and the position of each farm was analysed taking into account the dynamic nature of the transition process.

ABSTRACT. Urban environments influence commercial farming in and around cities and agglomerations resulting in characteristic business models of urban agriculture caused by advantageous as well as disadvantageous urban influences. Either farms give up resp. turn to part-time farming or farms adapt their businesses to maintain competitive. These latter farms adjust their enterprises to the urban conditions for profitability on the farm level. Characteristic farming business models in urban regions named in literature are especially high-value production, diversification, and service provision. Within this study, these general characteristics of commercial urban agriculture are contextualized with statistic-based findings from Germany’s largest agglomeration Metropolis Ruhr. 3,600 farms in this polycentric city region cultivate nearly 40 % of the metropolitan area, mainly in the peri-urban fringe, but to considerable amounts also within the central zone. Agricultural characteristics in Metropolis Ruhr differ from other regions due to its urban and polycentric structure. Horticulture, direct marketing concepts and a long list of different services offered to the population are building important components of urban agriculture here. The services offered range from social, education, health, leisure, and recreation ones to landscape management. The eleven urban municipalities of Metropolis Ruhr, where more than three million people (Metropolis Ruhr: 5.1 million inhabitants) are living, have a population density of nearly 2,000 inhabitants per square kilometer. These very densely populated urban municipalities are specially emphasized because urban influence here is the strongest. Not only is the urban influence most pronounced, but also the adjustment of agriculture to characteristic urban business models is intensified. Since a few years new business ideas have been emerging addressing the growing interest of cities and their population in gardening and food topics. An example of this is the strongly rising emergence of rental plots for seasonal use. Farmers rent small plots of plants, mainly vegetables, herbs and flowers, to people interested in cultivation and harvesting. This is especially interesting for farms selling also products in a farm shop. In Metropolis Ruhr several farms have started to offer these rental plots, either on their own or via companies specialized in this field. Additionally to the detection of characteristic business models of urban agriculture and the analysis of farming in Metropolis Ruhr based on a literature review and publicly available statistics, the assessments of some farmers are used to explain specific developments of urban agriculture within the case study region.

ABSTRACT. For nearly two decades, Italian and European agriculture shows the features of a new way of interpreting and understanding the agricultural activity. In its most classic meaning, agriculture is seen as the primary sector that produces and provides food and fiber, the new model of agriculture (multifunctional), however, is based on a farm able to produce a variety of goods and services of the most disparate nature, that aims to the integration of farm income, but also to the welfare of the entire community. The work aims to analyze the contribution of multifunctional agriculture to farm family income of Italian farms in order to integrate the knowledge about the differences in terms of structure, organization and expectations. The methodology that we propose uses the concept of “representative farms”, that is essentially empirical, in fact, it represents that farm whose characteristics are typical of a population of farms, in particular the structural features of the multifunctional farms, such as product differentiation (quality products, organic farming), and diversification (agri-tourism, social farming, recreational activities and so on). In other words, the representative farm has the average characteristics of a group substantially homogeneous of farms but not necessarily that farm is a real farm (De Benedictis and Cosentino, 1979). In order to identify this “representative farm” we will use data from different sources, in particular, the data from the sixth Italian agricultural census (farm universe) will be utilized to estimate the potential groups of multifunctional farms, through the analysis of structural aspects. While the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data, of the most recent year, will be used to calculate the contribution of multifunctional agriculture to farm family income values, through the analysis of economic aspects and results linked to the adoption of a multifunctional agriculture. In this way it will be possible to investigate how and how much the multifunctionality could influence the farm family income in the different “representative farms” identified.

ABSTRACT. Urbanization in Asia is characterized by growing and sprawling megacities that encroaches densely populated agricultural land in the periurban zone. It has created a specific feature called “Desakota” where urban and rural systems are intermingled to form a seemingly chaotic urban-rural land use. It has been proposed that this area can provide ecosystem services, food supply, and job opportunities, thus developing multifunctional agriculture in peri-urban landscape is required. However, transforming rural agriculture into multifunctional agriculture is a critical issue due to lack of understanding of farming characteristic in an urbanizing area. This research aims to study farmer’s adaptation to urbanization and analyze their capability to develop multifunctional agriculture. It was done based on field survey and interviewing 100 farmers in the Ciliwung upstream area which is located in the peri-urban zone of Jabodetabek Metropolitan Area (JMA) with Indonesia’s capital Jakarta as its core. This area plays an important role in water management, has beautiful scenery for recreational activities, supplies agricultural products, and provides income for numbers of farmers that tend to increase as they are pushed from the downstream area by the urban growth. The results showed that most of the farmers do not work on their own land as most of the land has been owned by the rich-urban people. The farmers can use the land by rent, sharing their harvest, work for land owner as a property guard, or give some money as a guarantee. Simultaneously, the land owners also need their land to be cultivated in order to secure their property. The farmers who rent a land usually are highly-skilled farmers from outside of JMA with high business motive and capital intensive, thus they tend to exploit the land. Conversely, the farmers who become a property guard have more environmental concern as they are paid to maintain the quality of land owner’s property. Meanwhile, other farmers who have lack of capital can be persisted by work in non-agricultural jobs. Although agricultural landscape in this area is often visited by tourists, school kids, etc., the farmers cannot take a benefit as it is not their property. Furthermore, lack of education has made the farmers incapable to manage the potency of agro-tourism activities. These findings imply that the form of relationship between farmers and land owner, different motives and strategies of farmer’s adaptation to urbanization, and individual capacity of the farmers should be considered to develop multifunctional peri-urban agriculture.

ABSTRACT. In the sense of contribute to the W3 - Economic impact at the farm level - the Second International Conference on Agriculture in an Urbanization Society, presents the conceptual framework of agricultural multifunctionality, based in the understanding of what the same, in addition to producing food and fiber, performs many other functions of essential importance in the dynamics of rural development. This understanding extends the field of socio-economic functions attributed to agriculture, no longer understood only as a producer of agricultural goods. Therefore, based on the premise that the productive dynamics and socio-cultural result of social relations themselves of agriculture, marked by numerous representations related to territorial characteristics, was used as an analytical tool the notion of multifunctionality, to demonstrate the sociological importance of the multiple functions of peasant family agriculture in the context of the Brazilian semiarid region. Methodologically the research was focused on the farming families in Curimataú Ocidental – the Agreste Paraibano and its territories, based on secondary information and interviews with 'social actors' local places, rather to point out that this diversity of agricultural activities is 'producer' externalities positive environmental sustainability. These results confirm previous research that agriculture loses the exclusivity of its production and economic, played an increasingly the character of a living space, 'producer' of externalities and public goods.

ABSTRACT. The capability to promote sustainable rural development through GIs is not an easy process, depending on actors involved in product qualification, on their qualification and on how code of practice in the qualification scheme is determined (Tregearet al., 2007; Vandecandelaere et al., 2010). Therefore, an effective collective action is required in order to boost the qualification and valorization of a GI. Collective action can be defined as voluntary action taken (directly or indirectly, through an organization) by a group of members to achieve common interests (Marshall, 1998).The collective action enable the local community to gain immaterial resources, like information, trust, networks aimed at innovation, etc. The paper sets against this background and aims at analyzing collective action behind the procedures for the recognition of a geographical indication. More precisely, by applying Ostrom’s (2010) scheme of analysis to the collective action required to obtain a PDO mark, the paper focuses on a specific product in region Lazio (Italy): Pecorino di Picinisco PDO. The initiative of a GI mark has been launched by the regional association for agricultural innovation; however, after the initial enthusiasm, it seems becoming even weaker. Ostrom’s approach is a relevant tool in order to analyze possible bottlenecks, by detailing various relational aspects behind a collective action. The applied methodology lets obstacles to implement the virtuous circle of collective action to emerge. Moreover, on the basis of our empirical analysis, possible actions aiming at consolidating the collective action behind a GI may be suggested.

ABSTRACT. The governance and efficiency of the public Policy in favour of the Geographical Indications (GI) in Morocco for creating value and fighting poverty in rural back countries are analyzed. From the certification projects in two Northern and South Western regions, the reports of several participative workshops and individual interviews, the GIs in Morocco appear to be more an official communication support of image than an operational tool of development. Considered as “modern” innovations by themselves and generally top – down administrative initiatives, the GI projects have difficulties to be understood by the professional actors and are little connected to specific and realistic economic local economic objectives and the changes in urban demand. Including the GIs in a broader discussion on the general governance of 2nd Pillar of the Green Moroccan project is one of the proposed suggestions.

ABSTRACT. The paper aims to contribute to the design of methodological tools for typification and hierarchi-sation of enterprises that belong to olive-oil geo-graphical indications (GIs), according to their respec-tive trajectories in their process of adoption of inno-vations and knowledge in terms of quality. The GIs analysed are the Protected Designations of Origin (PDOs) of “Sierra de Segura”, “Sierra Mágina” and “Estepa”, in Andalusia, Spain, as well as the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) “Olio Toscano”, in Tuscany, Italy. The information was obtained by means of surveys to oil enterprises. Three synthetic indicators of quality, as well as a general quality indi-cator (IQ), were elaborated upon the basis of nine original variables : i) quality in processes and techno-logical innovation; ii) best practices in quality; iii) organisational and commercial quality and innovation. We applied cluster and factor analysis and then we tested the next hypothesis. First, it is confirmed that firms belonging to a GI reach significantly higher IQ than that the non-affiliated ones. Second, it is also verified that private firms score significantly higher IQ than cooperatives. Finally, the size of the firm does not provide significant differences in the scores of IQ.

ABSTRACT. Third countries, specifically those located outside Europe have started to register Geographical Indications (GIs) in the EU since 2007. The registration of GIs in the EU requires collective efforts of organised producers as they shall define quality standards and defend their food products’ reputation while highlighting their geographical origin and value to consumers. The aim of this study is to evaluate the collective action of organised coffee producers in Colombia and in Thailand along the GI registration process. More specifically, we aim to understand to what extent the Ostrom’s design principles* explain effective collective action in the GI process. We collected data using semi-structured interviews and document analysis, which we then processed in a qualitative text analysis. Preliminary results show that the design principles might be helpful for understanding the local collective action of coffee growers, however, the principles also show challenges concerning the social boundaries (e.g., interactions between coffee growers and roasters) or the collective choice arrangements (who defines the rules). A pure focus on the growers’ collective action for establishing and managing the origin protection does not give a full picture, since in Colombia coffee beans are mainly roasted and commercialised abroad while in Thailand there is not a clear understanding of what GIs mean for coffee growers and local roasters located in the geographical GI boundary. It is crucial to understand the collective action by scrutinising the scope of: i) the formal and informal institutions surrounding the GI process (e.g., principle 3), ii) the types of actors leading the GI registration process (e.g., principle 1), and iii) the inclusion and participation of all potential actors (e.g., coffee growers, local and international roasters, government authorities, development organisations) (e.g., principles 1, 6). GIs are still new in developing countries and in some cases it is difficult to consider GIs as a long-term practise of linking traditions, territory, quality and human factors since GIs might be mainly considered as a commercial strategy to reach the common EU market of 28 nations.

*1) well-defined boundaries, 2) proportional equivalence between benefits and costs, 3) collective-choice arrangements, 4) monitoring, 5) graduated sanctions, 6) conflict- resolution mechanisms, 7) graduated sanctions, 8) nested organisations.

ABSTRACT. The United Nations predicts that by 2030 more than half of the world population will be living in cities. The shift in population is in part the result of high growth rates in cities but also because of the continuous outward flow from villages and the countryside. The prospect of a rapidly urbanizing world invariably raises concerns about food security. In fact, food security was a top of the Millennium Development Goals. Addressing this goal, planners and policy makers are reevaluating the potential for urban agriculture. Cultivation in and around cities is increasingly seen as an alternative for feeding the urban inhabitants and at the same time providing them with green environments. Thirty two percent of Lebanon’s four million inhabitants, 1.3 million, live in Beirut and its suburbs. This research aims to investigate the landscape potential of urban agriculture located at the peripheries of Municipal Beirut and assess its prospective to contribute to urban food security while providing for urban green areas and other benefits like urban water management and environmental protection. What role can urban agriculture landscapes play in reducing pressure on land and enhancing local and global food security? The methodology follows three broad lines of inquiry: the first is an archival research, looking back at agricultural activities that characterized Beirut and its peripheries between the 17th and 20th centuries. The second is a review of the literature available on urban agriculture in Lebanon. The third line of inquiry undertakes a field survey in three locations at the edge of municipal Beirut: Shweifat and the coastal and low foothill sections of the Nahr Beirut, respectively the Metropolitan hotel area and Daychuniyyeh Valley. Drawing on the experience of urban agriculture elsewhere, a policy framework is adopted to characterize the existing pattern of urban agriculture. As an outcome, we have identified the main limitations to urban agriculture in the area of study as resulting from land tenure, water quality, competition with imported crops and chemicals used in production. Future prospects include the current market demand, economic profit and the prevailing awareness among interviewees of the multiple benefits of urban agriculture. Recommendations call first for the adoption of a multi-stakeholder process for the protection and promotion of urban agriculture. Future planning strategies should encourage production on state and Municipality-owned lands, Wakf and lands awaiting development. In addition, the study recommends rainwater harvesting to combine food production and environmentally sustainable urban greening.

ABSTRACT. Nowadays, agriculture in many European regions is characterised by a high degree of specialisation. This specialisation results in areas dominated by intensive livestock farms which import all or at least a major part of the feed from outside the farm. As a consequence, these farms have an excessive animal manure surplus. On the other hand, in other regions crop farms rely mainly on chemical fertilizers for their nutrient inputs. In the European FP7 funded CANTOGETHER (Crops and ANimals TOGETHER) project improving agricultural sustainability through innovative mixed farming systems (MFS) is studied at farm level and at regional level. Innovations in MFS are targeted at improving nutrient use efficiency and reducing nutrient losses to the environment. For the design of new, innovative MFS at the regional level, a participatory method is used, followed by a case study approach in which cooperation between stakeholders and inclusion of regional characteristics were main components. We assessed crop-livestock integration strategies in four European regions: 1) Local exchange of manure for straw among farms in the Ebro Basin, Aragon, Spain; 2) Provision of high quality and protein rich forages for dairy cows through a forage dehydration facility in which coal is replaced by local produced Miscanthus and wood as fuel in Britany, France; 3) Land sharing between dairy and arable farms, combined with nature conservation areas to maintain an attractive landscape and improve water quality in Winterswijk, the Netherlands; and 4) Animal exchanges between a lowland region (Thurgau) and a mountainous region (Grisons) in Switzerland. Adopting a MFS at farm level is not popular among specialised farmers because of high investments, e.g. machinery costs, and labour pressure when combining crop and livestock activities on the same farm. Livestock and crop farms cooperating together could benefit from specialisation within their own farm and as well as from exchange (e.g. feed and manure) with another farm. Preliminary results showed that crop and livestock integration at regional level does not necessarily lead to environmental benefits. Instead the cooperating farms have often more intensive farming practices than non-cooperating specialised farms. It is not yet clear whether cooperation helped farmers to intensify their system, or is required to sustain already intensive systems.

ABSTRACT. Farmland preservation is probably the most common aspect of the integration of food systems in urban and spatial planning. At the regional scale, the need to protect agricultural land is being intensified by urban demands for food, but also for environmental, recreational and landscape-related services (Zasada, 2011). Urban agriculture is furthermore promoted for its contribution to education and to poverty alleviation. The preservation of agriculture is presented as a way to cope with resilience as well as fairness matters. However, as Tornaghi (2014) critically examined urban agriculture, we would like to show that justice issues have been overlooked in farmland protection policies. Such policies are mainly designed to preserve the economic potential of farmland and sometimes the landscape or the environment. Though they are not directly motivated by social goals, they have social consequences in so far as they affect the price and conditions of access to the land and to development rights. In some cases, they also confer exemptions to farmers or to specific types of farmers. Hence, they raise questions of justice in the access to land, housing and building rights, between farmers, between different social groups of inhabitants, and between owners and non-owners.

Our hypothesis is that this lack of consideration of justice issues in farmland protection constitutes a barrier to a more efficient integration of food systems in urban planning. Our contribution uses spatial justice as a lens to assess two innovative tools aimed at preserving farmland around Montpellier, France: i) a large agricultural estate bought by Montpellier Metropolis in order to create a periurban agricultural park and ii) the practice of spatial grouping of farm buildings in municipal binding zoning plans. Primary data were gathered through the consultation of public documents and in-depth interviews with key players (farmers, officials of metropolitan or municipal governments, farmers’ organisations). Around Montpellier, the rationale of farmland preservation has become consensual at the metropolitan scale. However, policies and projects cause local controversy. The two above-mentioned initiatives have raised equity issues among farmers and with other inhabitants about the fairness of the process and its outcomes in terms of allocation of public money, public land and building rights. Integration of farmland preservation in urban planning thus requires not only the empowerment of farmers in participatory planning but also a public open debate on the type(s) of agriculture that desserve to be preserved or supported by public funding in urban areas.

ABSTRACT. The main focus of the paper is the analysis of the opportunities for new functions that sprawl may serve linked to agricultural net-work and food system. Its contribute to the growth and activation of the surrounding rural areas could be implemented. The condition of the urban sprawl, on one hand, can be characterized by fragmented space, invested by rapid changes and open boundaries; on other hand can be recognized as a context in which multiplicity and diversity are prominent. In this space a different form of spatial quality reigns and different rules are applicable. Moreover, this middle condition entails many side effects. For example, the mixture between city, countryside and nature provides a different view of the relationship between people and settlement. There are different experiences, already realized or currently still in progress, that show more coherent integrated ways of combining this kind of urbanization with the food self sufficiency (i.e. Milan urban region, London urban region, Sassex region, Yorkshire region). The recognition of new qualities in this productive landscape of proximity agriculture enables us to understand food system more dynamically as a component of living communities. Although from a planning-urbanism perspective often have the tendency only to consider the spatial dimension of sprawl the links of city and urban agriculture is not only a spatial fact, but also a social common.

ABSTRACT. In 2007-2008 for the first time the urban population exceeded the rural one, while the data on world population show a continuous growth. The growth of the urban population increases the anthropized soil, raising the need of a method to measure and control the urban growth and to make stable the balance between the urban land and agricultural soil. In recent works the hypothesis of a non-linear dependence of the urban soil size on the size of the urban population has been considered and a power law to describe this dependence was suggested. The data analysis of 3646 cities with a population exceeding 100,000 inhabitants, made possible to estimate the parameters of the model and to verify the consistency of the allometric hypothesis. Starting from this law, we model the urban population dynamics, taking into account the agricultural resource exploited for the development and the maintenance of the population and also for the expansion of the cities by urban sprawl. The urbanization of peri-urban areas involves the decrease of the agricultural land size and the reduction of food resources, thereby limiting the urban population growth. The phenomenon may seem small in size, but because of the non-linear dependence between soil and people, the growth of the city can quickly become uncontrollable. It is therefore necessary to set limits to the urban expansion by establishing a policy of balance between the city and the country. The balance of this process, namely the carrying capacity, depends on the allometric model between the size of the anthropized ground and the size of the population. In this paper we analyze the evolution of the land use in Lombardia (Italy) from 1954 to 2009 to identify the carrying capacity and the urban sprawl of each province. The results of the analysis show that, within the assumptions of the model, not all the provinces of Lombardy can support the nutritional needs of the population. In larger cities the population exceeds the number of persons to whom the surrounding agricultural areas can provide food, while for others the agricultural soil support the nutritional needs of the whole population. The method also allows the identification of the areas where the phenomenon of urban sprawl is stronger. Finally some planning strategies are suggested to limit urban sprawl according to the predictions of the model.

ABSTRACT. To assess the current situation of municipal solid waste (MSW) composting opportunities and potential ac-ceptance of nutrient enriched pelletized compost in Sri Lanka, two field surveys were conducted nationwide and in Kurunegala (North-western) area, respectively. Due to the low nutrient content of MSW compost, it quali-fies mostly as a conditioner of the soil’s physical proper-ties. As a result the compost so far produced across the country has received limited attention. The surveys indicated that if the nutrient levels are increased, 74% of the farmers surveyed are willing to use the compost. The percentage willing to use compost was similar among farmers of the three most common crops; coconut, pad-dy and vegetables, ranging from 72 to 77%. Using the land use pattern, the crop cultivation databases and the willingness to use (WTU) results, the potential demand for compost was estimated. As per the results, in the urban context of Kaluthara, a 160% larger capacity plant (present input capacity 38 t/day) would be needed to satisfy market demand within a 10 km radius of the plant. For the Attanagalla plant (present capacity 10 t/day) within a rural setting, all compost could be ab-sorbed within 2 km.

ABSTRACT. Food is becoming a powerful factor of social transformation and urban agriculture is increasingly being linked to the concept of resilient city-region food systems. In Spain concerned consumers engage in networks to buy directly to local farmers or to support them through CSA initiatives.

To understand these processes, it has to be noted that commonly these groups of consumers committed with new peri-urban farmers had previously been part of community gardens. This role of intra-urban agriculture is of special significance in Spain, a typical customer initiative case. It is not unusual either that unemployed people engaged in UA start new agricultural projects in peri-urban areas through direct selling and Participatory Guarantee Systems.

In sum, there are strong linkages between new organic local farmers, groups of consumers and community gardens. It is a common place that after urbanites engage in these initiatives, their way of life, their patterns of consumption and their diet change. Little evidence is given to support this statement, it is mainly based in personal perceptions.

In 2015 a survey has been conducted between people engaged in agreoecological projects, networks of consumers and producers, community gardens and integral cooperatives from Madrid metropolitan area. It provides the necessary data to sustain or dismiss the previous claim on the positive impacts of these forms of UA.

These projects of urban agriculture are supported mainly by middle-class, high educated people (over 75% have an university degree) whose labour conditions are increasingly precarious.

For them, the most common change after joining an UA initiative is related to patterns of consumption: participants are increasingly worried about the origin of the food their buy, they prefer seasonal products and local shops. There is also a considerably impact in the diet: most people engaged in these kind of initiatives do reduce the amount of meat, which results in a reduced pressure on natural resources (land, water, etc.)

Higher consciousness on the social problems derived from the global food agrosystems are also reflected in an increased awareness of social inequity: they are more concerned about labour conditions of farmers and workers in the food chain. They also participate more in local social activities, strengthening neighbourhood networks.

According to the answers, a relatively large proportion had previously some of these concerns in mind, but joining projects of UA has reinforced them and sharing experiences with others expand their "sustainable" behaviour towards new realms.

ABSTRACT. In Spain, the financial crisis of 2008 has had various consequences on the Spanish economy and on Spanish citizens, affecting both their material and immaterial conditions of living. In this context, many consider that the development of urban gardens in southern European cities is a response to the crisis. However, the relation between the creation of urban gardens and the economic crisis has not been investigated. We used a mixed methodology, which included on-field observations, interviews with local stakeholders and archive exploration, to investigate the link between the creation of urban gardens in Sevilla and the context of economic crisis. We identify three different processes related to the economic crisis, which impact the dynamics of creation and functioning of urban gardens in Sevilla: (i) the varying implication of public institutions, (ii) an evolution in gardener’s profile and motivations, (iii) a diversification of the types of initiatives. We detail and discuss each of these three processes.

ABSTRACT. Rich in biodiversity and home to nutritious crops, mountain ecosystems in Nepal are threatened by deforestation, soil degradation and erosion, as well as the melting and receding of glaciers. Plant biodiversity including wild and cultivated nutritious crops and related ecosystem services have benefits for all people and geographies worldwide.

The latest indication from the IPCC clearly point towards an even greater impact from climate change, while the demand for food from a growing population worsens the sustainability problem even further. Organic agricultural practices not only help to maximize carbon fixation while minimizing emissions, hence reversing the greenhouse effect, but also provide solutions to problems of health, nutrition, unemployment, poverty, loss of biodiversity, and water quality. Therefore, the added value of organic agriculture for sustainable urban development is evident but ill-researched and implemented to a very limited extent.

Our paper focuses on the design and implementation of Urban Organic Agriculture for sustainable food systems in the urbanizing society of Nepal. It describes the case study of Kathmandu Valley and highlights how organic agriculture can help tackle pressing issues of urban and peri-urban agricultural environment and their ecosystems for their livelihood, food and ecological securities. In the paper a model of urban organic agriculture for sustainable food systems is developed, which contains suggestions for market development that respects indigenous culture and provides local and global benefits.

ABSTRACT. The use of agricultural and municipal waste for soil amendments is limited in many developing countries. It is essential to understand the current use of agricultural waste in order to explain the insufficient application of organic amendments on cropland. The aims of this study were therefore (i) to investigate competitive uses of agricultural waste between different typologies of urban farmers and link this to nutrient balance, (ii) to identify farm characteristics that influence urban farmers’ decisions about using agricultural waste for soil amendments, and (iii) to assess the demand for non-agricultural waste (i.e. urban waste) compost across different urban farmers. Four groups of urban farmers, namely (i) field crop farmers, (ii) vegetable producers, (iii) ornamental plant growers, and (iv) farmers practicing mixed farming, were identified using categorical principal component and two-step cluster analyses. The study demonstrated that shortage of land was one of the drivers of change in farming strategies from field crop farming mixed farming vegetable producer. The study also showed that the production and utilization of agricultural waste (i.e crop residue and manure) varied significantly between different farmer groups. Field crop farmers produced the greatest quantity of agricultural waste, but they mainly used the waste for fuel and animal feed. Field crop farmers utilized >80 % manure for fuel consumption, and only 5% for soil amendment. In contrast, vegetable and ornamental plant growers allocated >60 % of manure and crop residues for soil amendment. Urban farmers also sell their manure and crop residues to urban dwellers, and this generated 5-10 % of their annual income. Therefore, the nutrient balances (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium) were negative in all urban farmers groups, but the balances were less negative in vegetable growers. Education, land size, land tenure and access to extension services were the variables that influence agricultural waste utilization. More than 60% of urban farmers were willing to contribute labor, money and/or both for urban waste compost. However, demand for urban waste compost varied between different urban farmers group. Landownership, experience with compost and access to extension services were the variables that explained variations in compost demand. The present study demonstrated that estimating municipal waste compost demand via a willingness to pay cash underestimated the actual demand. It was concluded that urban waste compost should be used as an alternative soil amendment and it is recommended that it should be supported by economic incentives or legislation.

ABSTRACT. Food insecurity is applied to a wide range of phenomena and inclusion of more subjective perceptions of the problem has been suggested. This study intended to construct what constitutes food insecure households in the view of pastoralist and agropastoralist communities in the central part of the cattle corridor of Uganda. A questionnaire survey targeting a sample size of 2400 households that were randomly selected in Nakasongola and Nakaseke districts assessed what was perceived as characteristics of food insecure households. Subsequently, in each of 12 purposively selected villages one focus group was mobilised on a principle of gender and age homogeneity. Group discussions involved participants describing the food secure and what they perceived to be varying levels of food insecurity in a household. From the survey of 1683 agropastoralist and 228 pastoralist household respondents 55% and 53% were female respectively. The majority of respondents (47-50% depending on whether they were pastoralist / agropastoralist and male / female) perceived food insecure households as those with less than 1acre of land and / or low acreage of drought resistant food crops like cassava. Only 8-10% of the respondents perceived the food insecure as those whose household head and members were casual labourers. In tandem with household respondents, agropastoralists focus groups described the food secure as those who had at least 2-3 acres of drought resistant food crops, granaries of stored food and who could afford to sell off some food items. Pastoralists described the food secure as those who could afford to buy required food items often. Agropastoralists clearly distinguished between three levels of food insecurity i.e. extreme food insecurity which was twice as severe as moderate which in turn was three times as severe as mild food insecurity. However pastoralists perceived mainly two levels i.e. extreme and moderate food insecurity. Gender differences in the perception of some consumption coping strategies as food insecurity indicators included a pastoralist women group which found providing labour for income to buy food instead of attending to own fields / livestock as depicting extreme household food insecurity whereas pastoralists men and mixed youth groups felt it indicated just moderate food insecurity There were some outright differences in perception of the food insecure between pastoral and agropastoral livelihood groups. Interventions targeting the food insecure should incorporate pastoral and agropastoral community differences in perceptions of food insecurity; consideration of the link between perceptions, coping and rural-urban migration is recommended.

ABSTRACT. Food security cannot be answered by providing appropriate technologies needed in increasing production. Agriculture stakeholders usually cannot attain the increase in production as a result of a given technology because they cannot afford to buy the inputs needed. Agriculture stakeholders from upland and lowland communities were interviewed and compared on how they manage the shocks and stresses bought about by food insecurity. Also their nutrition status were compared. Farmers from upland communities were more resilient on shocks and stresses brought about by food insecurity than farmers from lowland areas. Farmers living in Barangays Abo and Bukal, the upland communities of Nagcarlan, Laguna, Philippines, owned the land they are working on and just planting rootcrops around will not make them hungry. While farmers from Barangays Lagawen and Buenavista of Nagcarlan, Laguna Philippines do not own the land they are farming and the presence of many food outlets in the lowland, they fill they are poor, because they do not have money to buy food. The nutrient status of upland farmers are much better than the lowland farmers, for some missed eating regular meals. The difference lies on eating own produced rootcrops compared to street foods in the lowland.

ABSTRACT. The level of food consumption of Polish population depends on the physical and economic availability of food. Physical availability of food is determined by agricultural production, processing, import, export and stocks of agricultural commodities and food, whereas the economic availability of food is determined by incomes of the population and food prices. Domestic agriculture has a decisive influence on the food consumption of Polish population. Its production capacity is sufficient to produce agricultural commodities and food to ensure an appropriate food for Polish population. The purpose of this study was to analyze the changes in the level of food consumption in urban and rural households in total and by socio-economic groups (employees, farmers, self-employed, retirees and pensioners) from 2005 to 2012. As an empirical material the results of the Household Budget Surveys (HBS) prepared by the Central Statistical Office in Poland were used. The obtained results were compared with the current national and international dietary guidelines. The analysis of food consumption in urban and rural population groups allowed to determine how much the level of intake of milk, fish, fruits, vegetables, or products that have a significant impact on human health is different from the dietary guidelines recommended by the international organizations (FAO, WHO) and Polish specialists in the field of human nutrition. In all studied population groups the consumption of milk and dairy products was low. Deficiency of calcium in the diet is one of the main factors of osteoporosis. At the current situation of food consumption the urban population has to take into account the serious health consequences which may result from too low intake of vegetables, fruits and fish. Reported irregularities in the food consumption of urban and rural populations in Poland confirm the need to take steps towards changing diet of Polish people. It must rely on increased consumption of food products that have a positive effect on human health and reduced consumption of products, which in excessive amounts contribute to an increased risk of chronic non-communicable diseases (sugar, sweetened juices and beverages, confectionery, pastry, salt, fatty meat, animal fats). National food policy must take action towards education of Polish population in terms of food, nutrition and health and interactions between them. Nutrition and health education is an essential tool in the development of healthy eating habits and maintaining in a good health. This is an important step towards ensuring food security.

ABSTRACT. Puglia is the first region in Italy for vegetable cultivation (Istat, 2011). However before the introduction of some important innovations allowing the increase in yielding and cultivated areas, horticultural production in Puglia was limited to the urban vegetable gardens (UVG). Up to the first half of the previous century, they were the first source of vegetables for local populations, that have traditionally high vegetable consumption due to both climatic reasons and innate food preference. Limitation of local horticulture to the UVGs during the first half of the last century was due to higher availability of water for irrigation and manure and organic wastes for fertilization and to the advantage of being close to the work place for farmers and their families and other labor units. After land reclamation and the diffusion of more extended and efficient irrigation methods, vegetable species became important crops in wide and suitable lands in Puglia. As a consequence in last decades UVGs have been progressively replaced by urban buildings for industrial and residential use and by infrastructure artifacts. At present very few UVGs are still surviving over the whole region, thanks to the untiring work of some ancient patriarch growers, who are carrying on, at the same time, an action of safeguard of old vegetable biodiversity. In the research project ‘Biodiverso’, funded by the Regional government of Puglia, a great work of recovery and valorization of old species susceptible to genetic erosion has being done. Through this action, researchers are carrying out a mapping of the regional territory also in term of presence, distribution, importance and functions of UVGs. Some of these are real examples of rural archaeology, perfectly preserved close to the urban centre. Nevertheless they are held by very old farmers and, in order to avoid that all this heritage of knowledge and biodiversity can be lost, we have the unique chance to turn the traditional UVGs into modern urban gardens incorporated within wider and multifunctional projects. From this aspect a new perspective can derive for UVGs. A combination of new functions: i) environment safeguard (preservation of genetic horticultural biodiversity, landscape governance, waste composting), ii) education to new generations (promotion of knowledge and consumption of local varieties, teaching almost lost cultural techniques, hosting gardening classes and vegetable garden for children, promoting knowledge and identification of wild edible species), iii) governance (participated management of urban and peri-urban areas and common goods, food production planning).

ABSTRACT. The contribution focuses on a bottom-up experience of landscape and environmental stewardship, interpreted as a process of both social innovation and local action mobilization. This experience is carried out through agricultural practices on the Brenta Valley's highlands, located in the italian region of Veneto. Its slopes are characterized by majestic terraced systems – made up of dry-stone walls, supporting little plots of land – which where heavily abandoned during the 20th century. In order to contrast the degradation processes due to human neglect together with messy renaturalization, in 2010 started the initiative “Adopt a terrace in the Brenta Valley”. It experiments a social rescue of the threatened heritage, by re-enabling the conditions for a diffused land-care action, in a landscape perspective. Starting form the observation of some spontaneous practices of plots’ re-appropriation occurred for horticultural purposes, the project was developed within an action-research, aiming to get a wider reproducible approach for social-driven territorial requalification. The project is centred on an adoption mechanism, which enables the interested subjects to recover the abandoned or maintenance-lacked terraces through agricultural practices, thanks to a “pact” between landowners and growers, in a context of urban-rural exchanges’ intensification. Everyone can easily adopt and cultivate a terrace in return of taking care of it, through a free of charge leasing agreement. In this way, the individual needs of direct access to land, self-reliance in food production and agro-recreational activities meet the collective interests in preserving the cultural and environmental heritage. The adoption idea is a revolutionary solution because innovates the conditions of land’s access and use (beyond the classic public-private dichotomy) and because endorses civic engagement in sustainably management of common goods. During the first 4 years of activity, more than 120 terraces have been recovered (for a total surface of over 5 ha), and many collateral projects are following-up, including some economic valorization tries, such as the creation of a young farmers’ cooperative and a local market for km0 products. Positive impacts are recognizable on environment, social dimension and territory micro-management. Although representing a small experience on a very local scale, this initiative suggests a different conceptual and operational framework for collective action (valorizing user-oriented strategies responding to social demands). The multifuncional potentials of agricultural practices could be here framed in a governance perspective, while arises their civic role, which cannot prescind from human resources investments, neither from the drive of expertise advocacy and policy support.

ABSTRACT. Bangladesh, an agro-based country, is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Poor management, use of excessive agrochemicals and climate change are some key challenges for agricultural production. Besides, decreasing land-man ratio is big concern to feed the increasing population. Agroforestry is an integral part of the rural livelihood systems for centuries in Bangladesh and plays a key role in providing household food and energy securities, income and employment generation, investment opportunities and environmental protection. Various traditional and new agroforestry systems are practiced in different ecosystems of Bangladesh since time immemorial. However, the potential benefits of agroforestry are not being tapped due to lack of knowledge and technology. A model of multistoried agroforestry system has been developed for Terrace ecosystem in Bangladesh with the aim to improve productivity, income generation and farm environment through utilization of available resource, knowledge and technology. Sole Jackfruit orchards are widely found in Bangladesh, which yield poorly due to improper management. The orchard was transformed into multi-storied agroforestry system (MSAS), where Jackfruit trees were kept as upper-storied; Papaya, Lemon and Orange were at middle-storied; seasonal vegetables such as Brinjal and Bottle gourd were grown as lower-storied crops. The MSAS improved field environment in terms of soil moisture and temperature although light was the limiting factor for understory crops. Jackfruit yield was increased by 33% in agroforestry system due to benefits received from fertilizer and irrigation management used for the middle- and lower-storied crops. On the contrary, Papaya, Brinjal and Bottle gourd yields were reduced by 21, 24 and 38%, respectively, due to competition among the components for resources. The overall yield in multi-storied agroforestry system was increased remarkably, and the benefit cost ratio (BCR) and land equivalent ratio (LER) were more than 5 and 3, respectively. Farm environment was improved due to good combination of crops in various agroforestry systems. Soil moisture and temperature were conserved positively in agroforestry plots due to reduction of evaporation and transpiration losses. A large amount of biomass, diversified food, multiple products and shelters were obtained from different components of the system. It was observed that farm income was increased by 182% in MSAS compared to sole Jackfruit system. Farm productivity and profitability have been increased significantly that might have positive impacts on employment and income generation, improve livelihood and living environment and ensure food security of the resource poor farmers.

ABSTRACT. At the scale of the entire globe it can be calculated that we produce enough food to feed nine billion people. Mathematically, this is possibly right. However, many (weak, poor) groups still do not have access to food. This paper reports a way to support these groups to gain access to healthy food. In Rio de Janeiro the residents in the favelas eat candy, potato chips, pre-wrapped cakes, and drink booze and soft-drinks: not the most healthy diet. The ‘FoodRoof’ is introduced to support local residents to grow their own healthy food. This FoodRoof is a design for an aquaponic food-system on the roof of an individual house. The first FoodRoof has been realised in 2014 in Cantagalo favela and provides fish, vegetables and herbs for the residents of the house beneath. The system closes cycles of nutrients, water and energy and prevents waste to be dumped in the water system and Guanabara Bay, an additional advantage. To complete the environmental benefits in an experimental setting it has been build from garbage out of the bay. In the paper the design and implementation of the FoodRoof will be described and the benefits, conditions and potential future improvements will be discussed.

ABSTRACT. Ever since farmers growing crops, raising livestock and caught fish, they always sought for information. In past few decades several research and development initiatives in agriculture space put the farming in fast track. But those new agriculture inventions are not reaching the needy farmers due to information gap. Due to information gap, agriculture in developing country like India become "Input intensive" but NOT "knowledge intensive". As a result, agriculture becoming not profitable and farmers losing interest in farming and migrating to urban area in search of jobs. This polarization leading to several social problems. This problem remain persistent until agriculture become "Knowledge intensive" for which information is a key. The biggest conventional and historical barrier for agriculture information dissemination are “Illiteracy” and “Diversity” in developing country like India and other Asian and African countries. With the increased penetration of smartphones even in rural area, there is a huge potential to use their phones as primary tool of intervention to deliver the knowledge/information in constructive and simple manner. Jayalaxmi agrotech, a start-up impact first social entrepreneurship firm from rural India, developed several crop specific android mobile apps to address information gap. These application are built to break the literacy barrier and deliver the information in regional language with full of audio visuals. Suite of apps for agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry are already been developed and released for farmers in multiple languages. Once installed, these apps can work offline without internet. These apps spread mainly through farmer to farmer multiplier effect without depending on internet. Within last few months since the launch, apps reached 15,000 individual farmers and impacted lives of at least 50,000 farmers. Its ability to provide end-to-end information in regional language with audio visuals without internet is key success factor. In south Indian states, today these apps are spreading and reaching one new farmer every 8 to 10 minutes and expected to reach one new farmer evey minute in near future. As a result, farmer adopted better “Package of practices” with the help of our mobile apps, which in turn reduced the excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers. As per the preliminary survey conducted on our app users, overall agri-input cost cut down by 14% and productivity increased by 17% due to adoption of mobile apps in agriculture.

Watch demo at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA4_xCK0mLY

ABSTRACT. The urban open and green spaces may have a number of environmental, economic and socio-cultural values. Environmental values include; Reduction of air pollution and protection of water resources, reduction of harmful influence of sun, wind and temperature, increase in biodiversity. Economic values include; Production of food, fodder, timber and fuel wood, setting for new development, new businesses and jobs, increase in property values. Socio-cultural values; Improved health and possibilities for recreation, pleasant living environments and stages for social activities, keeping people in contact with nature, education and training. Trees in cities are widely regarded as an integral component of urban infrastructure. The urban green mosaic encompasses a wide range of habitats that may be natural, semi-natural and entirely artificial. In nowadays, as a result of multi-directional contributions and services of urban trees and forests in open and green spaces, the usage of urban trees is gradually increased in urban areas. For the sustainable of the trees in and around of city, it should require conscious and to holistic planning and management for urban trees. Therefore, the inventory and database of urban trees or forests should be made as scientific and technical. The existing trees within the city are regarded as most important natural data of urban information system. To determine to structural, functional and economic values of the urban trees are needed to reliable and a systematic database. In this paper, it will be explained a GIS-based Urban Trees Information Systems (UTIS) model about urban trees in Turkey–Isparta city. This model will be introduced about inventory record, storage, query processing and also online sharing of data of urban trees in the ArcGIS. This model can also be integrated into urban information systems through activities such as urban management.

ABSTRACT. All over Europe, open spaces, varying in dimension and location, are perceived as unresolved places, expelled or excluded by institutional transformation rules. Notably, the condition of “urban fringe” involves ever larger parts of territory, where suburbs are melted with agricultural and natural landscapes. Yet, regardless of their current conditions, open spaces remain a major stake in urban ecology, in order to promote the continuity of the so-called “Green Infrastructures”, to enhance biodiversity and to cope with the negative effects of the climate change. Tivoli, a pre-roman settlement in the eastern hinterland of Rome, is well renowned for its sulphur mineral water springs and for the exploitation of water resources in the impressive sceneries for the gardens of Villa Adriana (II Century) and Villa d'Este (XVI Century). The City is currently on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. The long history of mutual interdependencies between Roma and Tivoli is physically marked by the Tiburtina consular road and economically by a series of long lasting trade exchanges: Tivoli's hills have always been producing high quality olive’s oil, quarries along the Aniene River have been providing a particular white calcium-carbonate rock – the “travertino” - used in building most Roman monuments. The water power of the Aniene falls has been used since the early industrial period for paper mills and ironworks factories. From the Twentieth Century onwards, the river has partly provided for the Capital’s electricity needs. Nowadays, many plants along the Aniene River are abandoned, and brownfields still holding landmarks of industrial archeology lie among illegal settlements, large retail boxes and warehouses. “Aniene as a Greenway” allows for an inclusive notion of landscape addressing the manifold dimensions of open space, on the backdrop of the new “Metropolitan City” that will be provided with extra powers to steer the inter-municipal strategic planning process. Several issues and scales are at stake in the River Park spatial strategy: urban agriculture, urban greening and afforestation tools, but also re-use and re-cycle schemes and small-scale solutions able to improve urban quality.

ABSTRACT. When speaking about green infrastructures of contemporary cities, reference is most commonly made to urban green areas in their diverse forms and typologies (parks, gardens, playgrounds, street trees, green walls etc.). Less frequent is to include in the green patchwork of urban and periurban open vegetated land also agricultural areas, despite their vital role as multifunctional resources for sustainable cities. ISPRA’s project “The Quality of Urban Environment” monitors since 2004 the state of urban green areas in major Italian cities through a series of indicators, with the aim to better understand the great diversity of natural and semi-natural areas present in cities so that their services and benefits to human societies can be better accounted for. The paper will present some of the data published in the Xth edition of the ISPRA Report where indicators on urban agricultural areas for 73 Italian cities are published for the first time, with the aim to better represent the biodiversity of urban green components. Data reveal - among other - that agricultural areas are a fundamental component of the urban green infrastructures and that, despite increasing urbanization, they still cover a significant part of municipal area in some cities, mainly in South Italy, where on the contrary green is often lacking. Moreover, they often appear to have high naturalist values: many of them are in fact included in natural protected areas and/or in the Natura 2000 network. It is therefore argued that when monitoring green infrastructure account should be taken also of agricultural areas and that urban/spatial planning should maintain vital landscape connections between them so that they can be mutually supportive resources and – as such – continue providing their valuable environmental and socio-economic services to an increasingly urbanized societies.

ABSTRACT. The town of Senigallia in Marche region (Italy) has instructed Agricultural Department of Bologna to draft a Green Masterplan of the city to increase the value of green spaces, connect them each other and improve the quality of people life. The Green Masteplan has been approved in 2010 and after this year, many projects have been proposed. This article wants to describe the project of two urban forests that have been proposed to reduce the CO2 released from traffic after the extension of highway that cross the city and to give people two big green areas where spend the journey. The choice of species, the planting pattern and the breadth of surfaces want to optimize the sequestration of CO2 and reduce the air and acoustic pollution.

ABSTRACT. Contribution of local fresh horticultural foodsystems to a sustainable society is vastly recognized. However, the activity continues to be limited to a niche market in many places, particularly in high-income economies, or it is challenged in lower income economies with the rise of high-quality standard market outlets (e.g. grocery stores). In this study we hypothesize one of the most significant steps toward promoting local food systems is through both analyzing consumer’s demands and revisiting mandatory/ voluntary guidelines on cosmetic defects of food.The objective of this study is toprovide a holistic analysis to whether“blemished” fresh produce entering the food supply chains carry food safety risk or rather opportunities to promote local food systems.

This work was conducted studying various sources of information, including: i) quality standards (both voluntary and mandatory); ii) analysis of range of characteristics prevalent in assessing visual quality of selected fruit and vegetables along the supply chain; iii) policies and regulations of different food subsectors.The results demonstrated that standards for grades of fruit and vegetable (i.e. CODEX, USDA, private) indirectly exclude local food producers. For examples varieties (e.g. apples prone to high incidence of russeting) that are prevalent in local production are marginalized. Moreover, terminology used by current standards to describe physical defects is generally confusingwhich has influenced the way to assess produce by actors in the supply chain, as well as consumers. Furthermore, foodborne outbreaks associated to local production examined showed no clear evidence local produce carry different risk than those entering markets aiming at “un-blemished” product.

This work ends with a discussion of the implications of consumer demand for local food systems and how a better understanding of field -physical/pest damaged fruit and vegetables and the scientific validation of the relative food safety risk may become an important additional tool toward stimulating consumption of local produce.

ABSTRACT. How to develop sustainable local food systems in developing countries is a question that is increasingly being asked by policy-makers, academics and practitioners alike. A number of approaches have been developed to understand how these systems can be analyzed as well as how they might be implemented (Allaire 2010; Goodman, DuPuis and Goodman 2012; Loconto 2010; Loconto, Poisot and Santacoloma Forthcoming 2015). What is clear is that post-harvest concerns, particularly in terms of quality (in its multiple forms), are both highly important and often down-played in the analysis of local food systems. Qualities, specifically safety and sustainability as semi-credence qualities, are often the key values that an emerging group of urban consumers are seeking. The ability of actors in local food systems to provide consistent quantities of food products that meet these quality standards has not been consistently analyzed in developing country contexts, nor has it been theorized sufficiently in terms of the institutions that are necessary for ensuring these qualities. This paper seeks to fill this gap. We do this by examining the construction of a sustainable local food system through a single case study of the Songhai Centre in Benin Republic. This center serves as a multi-actor innovation platform that organizes the training of farmers and agri-business entrepreneurs, the processing of their products, the logistics of sourcing from the network of ex-students, and the sales of sustainable inputs, food and agricultural products, agro-tourism services, appropriate technologies and by-products from the sustainable agriculture production. These diverse components of the system are organized and coordinated through the processing facilities and services that are located in the country’s capital, Porto Novo. Between 2013 and 2015, the authors have been engaged in dialogue with the Songhai Centre and have been analyzing the value chains, the role of different types of actors and the construction of institutions (quality control systems, training and political support) that enable the Songhai Centre to effectively construct a diverse local food system that is based on the provision of food and other agricultural products and services that meet these two quality requirements. Following a descriptive analysis of these different components, we reflect upon the role of post-harvest aspects in contributing ‘value’ to local food systems in developing countries.

ABSTRACT. The Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) population is projected to double to 2.1 billion by 2050, and more than half the people will be urban-based. Alongside this, are other context-specific and dynamic drivers of change such as climatic change, communication technologies, policies, markets, and globalisation. The food and agricultural systems supporting these urban communities are to varying degrees adapting to these changes.

Situation analyses revealed no official assessment of household food security in urban centres in Tanzania and Malawi. Many key stakeholders equated availability of food in markets with urban household food security. However, low income urban households are especially vulnerable to food insecurity because of their low purchasing power, dependency on rural production, and the loss of nearby farming land to urbanisation. Higher income households have greater opportunity to bulk buy foods when prices are low, travel to source food, and produce food in urban fields.

Since the 1960s, in urban areas of Central Tanzania, changes in staple foods systems include a shift from women manually grinding pearl millet or sorghum to now taking maize or pearl millet to milling machines to produce flour to make a stiff porridge. Increasingly people purchase maize flour, often opting for the finest, whitest flour made from completely dehulled grain. The use of locally grown and processed sunflower oil has increased. As has the diversity of foods, with additions including plantains, Irish potatoes, fish, baobab fruits and soyabean. This was attributed to incoming tribes and their food cultures, nutrition education and improved incomes. Traditional sorghum and millet grains could be stored without insect damage for 2-3 years and easily bartered making them important in food security strategies. The increasingly popular maize, even if treated with pesticide, rarely stores beyond 9 months, but can be used to pay school fees etc. Food storage systems have also changed. In Malawi, processed cassava products are becoming more important for the urban poor.

SSA postharvest cereal losses are estimated at 13.5%, equivalent to the annual caloric requirement of 48 million people, or an annual loss of US$4 billion. As populations grow and climate change makes crop production increasingly difficult and variable, the need to reduce losses of this increasingly valuable harvest only intensifies. Key strategies for enabling agri-food innovation systems to support postharvest loss reduction are discussed. At national level, food reserves are back on the agendas of many African governments in response to these multi-faceted drivers of change.