Horticulture

Scoping the opportunity for urban and peri-urban agricultural development in South-East Asia

a variety of fruits in baskets, and two women sitting in the background. one of the women wears a large brimed traditional hat
image shows a map highlighting Vietnam and Philippines.

Overview

This project aims to assess the opportunities for ACIAR to invest in research supporting urban and peri-urban agricultural and food systems in South-East Asia, starting with the Philippines and Vietnam.

Focused on the contribution of urban and peri-urban agriculture to livelihoods, food and nutrition security, and the marginalized populations, the project will use a bottom-up approach with local stakeholders, organised in a "CITY-FRESH Coalition" in each country.

The research will focus on key sub-questions such as the practice of peri-urban agriculture, its contribution to livelihoods, vegetable production scale, and its impact on access and demand. The project will also draw on frameworks to address inequity in food systems and nutrition, such as the Nutrition Equity Framework and the HLPE report.

The study's recommendations will determine the potential for a research program targeting urban and peri-urban vegetable production systems and inform the CITY-FRESH Coalition model, which WorldVeg proposes for collaboration in research and interventions on urban food production.

Activities and expected outcomes

  1. Reviewing current knowledge and actions relating to (peri-)urban agriculture in South-East Asia.
  2. Identifying and confirming in-country partnership arrangements and defining focal cities for research.
  3. Identifying or creating local CITY-FRESH Coalitions for research inputs, and policy and practice engagement.
  4. Co-creating a refined research plan to answer the research questions with contextual insight from the CITY-FRESH Coalitions.
  5. Undertaking a survey to characterise existing (peri-)urban agriculture and food environments.
  6. Undertaking in-depth studies on aspects of (peri-)urban agriculture and food environments, co-defined with the CITY-FRESH Coalitions.

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