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FAO supports member countries to meet the challenges of an urbanizing world by promoting the integration of Urban and Peri-urban Horticulture (UPH) into national and local agricultural development strategies, food and nutrition programmes and urban planning. UPH is the cultivation of a wide range of crops – including fruit, vegetables, roots, tubers and ornamental plants – within cities and towns and in their surrounding areas. It is a key component of robust and resilient urban food systems whi ch empower the urban poor. UPH is already widely practised in developing countries, accounting for more than half of the fruit and vegetable production in cities in Burundi, Cape Verde, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique and Zambia.