Women livestock farmers are very productive and contribute greatly towards ensuring food security of their nations. However, their efforts are sometimes limited by climate-related hazards. This case study of The Gambia used content analysis, interviews, consultative seminars, policy mapping and dialogues to examine climate change adaptation issues confronting women livestock farmers in particular. Consequences of climate hazards, such as drought, flood, and temperature variability, have been experienced in The Gambia. ...

Multifunctional and Peri-Urban Agriculture (MFA and PUA) have spread all around the world as new, alternative means of food production. Due to their non-productive services, they are considered fundamental for food sovereignty and rural development, and also as tools to conserve the rural-urban fringe and limit sprawl. MFA and PUA are very often embedded in Alternative Food Networks (AFNs), which represent a change in food production and consumption practices. Drawing upon the definition of landscape according to ...

Urban gardening initiatives have evolved from their original purpose of food production to assume aesthetic, recreational, educational, social, or therapeutic functions. The general objective of this paper was to determine the new socio-spatial configuration into which these experiences have been implemented, in order to determine the diversity of actors involved in urban agriculture (UA) within the municipality of Perugia. Secondary objectives were to explore the social and environmental capital produced and to ...

This paper discusses the role rooftop food gardens can play as urban regeneration devices, by combining environmental and social benefits and leveraging food production as a mediating function. In particular, this study focuses on the case of OrtiAlti, an action-research project based in Turin, set up to revitalize abandoned or under-utilized urban buildings through rooftop community gardens. The research is aimed at understanding the extent to which rooftop farming can contribute to urban regeneration processes if ...

Urban gardens take on different forms and meanings, which vary depending on the socio-economic context where they located/used and how it evolves over time. This makes a garden comparable to a micro-social ecosystem, different from other gardens and ever changing. As with every social-ecosystem resulting from a territorialisation process, there is a certain degree of social inertia that makes it difficult for outsiders with new motivations and demanding new spaces to enter into the “garden ecosystem”. Drawing on ...

In Qatar food and water security are high on the agenda of safe and sustainable development. At the same time, rapid urbanisation which is not integrated with ecological landscape design is contributing urban sprawl, fragmented landscapes and to the loss of biodiversity. At Qatar University, the architecture department has been working for several years on the concept of regenerative cities to develop an integrated approach to planning and design and to increase resource efficiency and quality of life. This has led ...

South Sinai, Egypt is considered one of the most severe governorates for water scarcity. The current work aims to optimize irrigation requirements for almond trees (Prunus dulcis, syn. Prunus amygdalus, var. nonpareil) in the El-Tor area, South Sinai. Climate data of the El-Tor area was collected from 2010 to 2014 to calculate evapotranspiration. Two evapotranspiration equations were used in this work: Penman-Monteith (complex radiation equation) and Blaney-Criddle (simple temperature equation). Regression analysis ...

“Reaffirming that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interrelated, interdependent and mutually reinforcing and must be treated in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing and with the same emphasis, and recalling that the promotion and protection of one category of rights should never exempt States from the promotion and protection of the other rights, recognizing the special relationship and interaction between peasants and other people working in rural areas, and the land, water, nature and territory ...

The growing demand for the creation of urban gardens in large cities has created a discussion about the need for green spaces in cities that fulfil multiple functions. Beyond the production of fresh and healthy food, these spaces should also connect citizens, transform the public space through collective action, and engage the participation of society in the policies and planning for a greener city with a better quality of life. This paper addresses the case of São Paulo specifically and illustrates how urban gardens ...

In an uncertain future of climate change and constrained resources, urban agriculture is widely viewed as a sustainable and scalable approach to improving food security. While its social, health and wellbeing benefits are well documented, there is a major knowledge gap in terms of the financial accessibility of urban food production for all households. The implications are far-reaching: if urban agriculture is purely a middle-class discretionary activity, then it will play a limited role in improving food security ...