Peri-urban farms are a unique form of agriculture that provides important benefits but faces significant challenges. They are characterized by their close proximity to urban centres, for which they offer the benefits of employment, income, and source of local produce. In many areas of the world, vast influxes of the rural population to city centres has resulted in dramatic increases in the number of urban poor. Through the provision of employment and local food supplies, peri-urban agriculture offers the opportunity to improve food security among these populations. Furthermore, they can also provide recreational opportunities and environmental services that improve the quality of life for all city-dwellers. Nonetheless, peri-urban agriculture, due to its close proximity to cities, can also experience extreme competition for land, water, and other resources.

Therefore, as the global population and cities continue to grow numbers, peri-urban agriculture will likely have an increasingly important role to play within the global food system. It offers many unique benefits and contributes to urban food security; however it also faces competition for increasingly scarce resources and must contend with the uncertainties of climate change. In order to overcome these challenges, there is a need to develop and explore new forms of agricultural production that maximize the efficiency of resource use, and to create greater integration and cooperation between urban and rural resource use.

Therefore, peri-urban agriculture is a valuable and vulnerable form of agriculture that provides a variety of benefits to urban areas.

To read how this project aims to address these issues, continue to the project description page.