FAO warns of food shortages in urban settings

Africa’s urban population is growing faster than that of any other region, but many of its cities are not keeping pace with the increasing demand for food that comes with that growth, says the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report released on Thursday.It says policymakers need to act now to ensure that African cities will be “green” enough to meet their nutrition and income needs in a sustainable manner.The Growing Greener Cities in Africa Report includes data from 31 countries across the African continent, and was released ahead of the sixth session of the World Urban Forum due on September 1 until 7 in Naples, Italy.“The challenge of achieving a “zero hunger” world – in which everyone is adequately nourished and all food systems are resilient – is as urgent in African cities as it is in rural areas,” Modibo Traoré, FAO Assistant Director-General for Agriculture and Consumer Protection, said in the report.“African policymakers need to act now to steer urbanisation from its current, unsustainable path towards healthy, ‘greener’ cities that ensure food and nutrition security, decent work and income, and a clean environment for all their citizens”.It is the first status report on African urban and peri-urban horticulture – the home, school, community and market gardens that produce fruits and vegetables in and around the continent’s cities.It points out that many African countries have recorded strong, sustained economic growth over the past decade, leading to more urbanisation and raising hopes of a new era of shared prosperity.“But increasingly, urban areas also draw people in search of a way out of rural poverty, only to find little, if any improvement in their lives” it says.The report adds that more than half of all urban Africans live in slums, up to 200 million survive on less than $2 a day, and poor urban children are as likely to be chronically malnourished as poor rural children.But in Rwanda, Kigali is fighting back. The designs from the Kigali Conceptual Master Plan, a long-term framework for sustainable development of Rwanda’s capital envisions a city set amid greenbelts and zones reserved for urban agriculture, and open spaces with community gardens.“Kigali city has a great master plan. It has won several international awards. We have a strong central government and local authorities are doing their best to carry out its implementation, against all odds,”Lama Mugabo, an urban planner in Kigali told The New Times. “Kigali is one of the least developed cities but the fastest urban growing center on the continent. I’m very much interested in urban agriculture. I think that we would be better off if we can try to turn most vacant brown spaces into green fields and work with residents to growing food for the poor”. The World Urban Forum was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing problems facing the world today- rapid urbanisation and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies.By the end of the current decade, the report says, 24 of the world’s 30 fastest growing cities will be African.It cites surveys showing that between 2010 and 2030, the urban population of sub-Saharan Africa is projected to double, from about 300 to 600 million.The report urges national governments and city administrations to work together with growers, processors, suppliers, vendors and others to give urban and peri-urban agriculture the political, logistical and educational support necessary for sustainable development.FAO highlights the need to support low-income urban households to “grow their own”, as a way of improving the quality of their diet, saving cash to spend on other needs, and earning income from the sale of surpluses.

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FAO warns of food shortages in urban settings