NPR reports on a new study published by Environmental Research Letters, which indicates that up to 1.1 billion acres of land is being cultivated for food in or near cities. Most of that cultivation is occurring on the periphery of cities, but at least 16% is within the “municipal core.”
The researchers – led by Anne Thebo at the University of California Berkeley – looked at a combination satellite imagery analyses, agricultural census, population and socioeconomic data. Information that might impact urban water management was also revealed in the study.
The study also highlighted differing attitudes about urban agriculture in some developing nations as opposed to wealthier, Western counterparts.
NPR notes that:
“As Pay Drechsel, a scientist at the International Water Management Institute and co-author on the paper, notes, what’s hip and green in rich nations is viewed as backwards in poorer ones — “an inconvenient vestige of rural life that stands in the way of modernization.”
You can read the NPR article by clicking this link.
A 2012 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) study reported on urban and peri-urban agriculture in Africa.