Food for the cities programme

Benefits of sustainable and resilient CRFS

In a sustainable city region food system:

  • Food produced in peri-urban areas and rural hinterlands guarantees supplies for both urban areas and their rural surroundings, while urban areas supply the markets upon which agricultural livelihoods depend;
  • Rural watersheds supply potable water to urban areas and provide irrigation for urban, peri-urban and rural agriculture. Sustainable forms of urban water management can provide financial incentives for the preservation of such (agricultural) watersheds;
  • Food loss and waste can be prevented, reduced, and managed, including through the recovery and redistribution of safe and nutritious food for human consumption along the entire food supply chain from production to consumption, spanning both rural and urban territory;
  • Organic and agricultural waste resources produced in urban and rural areas can be used to generate energy and fertilisers, which are used in (peri)urban agriculture; and
  • Preservation and sustainable management of agricultural lands in rural and peri-urban areas can help to enhance flood retention or mitigate increasing temperatures, thus reducing the climate change vulnerability of both urban and rural areas.

The above also illustrates how city region food systems are connected to many other rural and urban sectors (e.g. food security, economic development, water and waste management, energy, transport, health, climate change, governance and spatial planning, etc.) and can enhance linkages among dimensions of economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

An ideal sustainable and resilient CRFS would include the following aims and components:

  • Increases access to food. Both rural and urban residents in a given city region have access to sufficient, nutritious, safe and affordable food. It supports local food cultures and sense of identity.
  • Generates decent jobs and income. It provides a vibrant and sustainable regional food economy with fair and decent jobs and income opportunities for small-scale producers and businesses involved in food production, processing, wholesale and retail marketing and other related sectors (such as input supply, training and services) in rural, peri-urban and urban areas in a given city region.
  • Increases resilience. It aims to increase the region’s resilience against shocks and lessen the dependence on distant supply sources.
  • Fosters rural-urban linkages. It connects food, nutrient and resource flows across urban and rural areas (e.g. the use of urban organic wastes and wastewater as resources in the urban agro-food system) and prevents/reduces food wastes in a given city region. It harnesses more integrated urban-rural relations, strengthens social relations between consumer and producers, and promotes the inclusiveness of smallholder farmers and vulnerable groups across the supply chain.
  • Promotes ecosystem and natural resources management. It promotes agro-ecological diversity and protects urban ecology/ecosystems. The ecological footprint of the city region food system is minimised from production to consumption, and it lowers greenhouse gas emissions for food transport, processing, packaging and waste management
  • Supports participatory governance. It fosters appropriate food policy and regulations in the context of urban and territorial planning. It also fosters transparency and ownership across the food supply chain.

Source: FAO and RUAF, 2015