Cities around the world are growing at an unprecedented rate. With this growth comes a critical question: how do you feed millions of people in densely packed urban areas where farmland is shrinking? Urban agriculture — the practice of growing food within or near cities — has emerged as one of the most practical responses to this challenge. It is not a futuristic idea; it is already happening on rooftops, along riverbanks, in courtyards, and on vacant lots across the globe. And for many of the world’s poorest urban residents, it is a lifeline.
Urban migration and the shifting geography of hunger
For decades, poverty and malnutrition were seen primarily as rural problems. That perception has changed. The traditional pattern of poverty incidence is rapidly shifting from rural to urban areas , driven by massive rural-to-urban migration. In developing countries, millions of people relocate to cities every year seeking better employment and living conditions. Many of these migrants end up in informal settlements — slums with poor sanitation, limited water access, and inadequate housing.
In many developing countries, the urbanization process goes along with increasing urban poverty, a polluted environment, growing food insecurity, and malnutrition, especially for children, pregnant women, and lactating mothers . Urban households in low-income countries often spend 50 to 80 percent of their income on food alone, leaving them highly vulnerable to price fluctuations and supply disruptions. This is the context in which urban agriculture becomes not just useful but essential.
What is urban agriculture?
Urban agriculture refers to agricultural activities carried out within or on the edges of cities, using primarily urban resources — such as organic household waste for compost, local labour, and available land — to produce food for urban populations. It covers a wide range of practices: small kitchen gardens in courtyards, container gardens on balconies, rooftop farms, community plots on vacant land, commercial vegetable production in peri-urban zones, and even livestock rearing within city limits.
What makes urban agriculture distinct from conventional rural farming is its deep integration with the urban ecosystem. It uses city-generated inputs, serves city-based consumers, and responds to city-level challenges like waste management and local food access. Urban agriculture is increasingly recognized not only as a food security strategy but also as a tool for sustainable urban development, with applications spanning climate change mitigation, economic development, and social empowerment . [Image: A rooftop garden in a developing-country city with vegetable beds and containers]
Benefits of urban agriculture
Strengthening food security
The most direct benefit of urban farming is improved food access. When households grow even a portion of their own vegetables and fruits, they reduce dependence on purchased food and improve dietary diversity. Households that practice urban agriculture are also more likely to have access to a wider variety of nutritious foods such as vegetables and animal products . In cities like Kampala, Uganda, urban agriculture has been linked with better nutritional outcomes in children.
For low-income families, this is significant. Growing food at home means spending less at the market, freeing up household income for other needs like education, healthcare, and housing. Surplus produce can also be sold locally, creating an additional income stream.
Reducing urban poverty
Urban agriculture contributes to roughly one-third of total income in some African cities . It generates jobs, supports small-scale entrepreneurship, and provides a safety net during economic downturns. In low and middle-income countries, urban agriculture serves as an essential coping strategy for urban poor communities, helping to mitigate unemployment and rising food costs .
Income from urban agriculture is particularly high in many African cities — in Bamako, Mali, and Dar es Salaam, the economic return to urban farmers has been estimated to be comparable to the income of unskilled construction workers .
Environmental sustainability
Urban agriculture contributes to environmental improvements in several ways. It helps manage organic waste through composting, reduces the carbon footprint associated with long-distance food transport, creates green spaces that improve urban biodiversity, and can help manage stormwater runoff. Scholar Luc Mougeot has noted that urban agriculture has great potential for composting household waste, making it a sustainable method for managing urban environments.
These green spaces also provide cooling effects in cities affected by urban heat islands, improving living conditions in densely built areas.
The Lusaka, Zambia case study
Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world and provides an instructive example of how urban agriculture develops under challenging conditions.
During 1992 and 1993, a research project on urban agriculture was carried out in Lusaka, focusing on household garden activities as an important part of the land-use system that contributes significantly to household food security . The study was supported by the FAO and carried out in both urban and peri-urban areas of the city.
Urban wasting: a new kind of malnutrition
Zambia shows very high rates of malnutrition among countries in the southern part of Africa. While previous studies indicate that malnutrition is greater in rural areas, the prevalence of wasting — indicating current poor nutritional status — is significantly higher in the urban population . This “urban wasting” represents a relatively new trend that highlights how urbanization can create new nutritional vulnerabilities, especially for recent migrants who arrive in cities with no land, limited savings, and few social safety networks.
Four types of urban agriculture in Lusaka
Despite restrictions from Lusaka’s city council on gardening activities, residents developed four distinct forms of food production to cope with food insecurity:
Subsistence gardening — small-scale cultivation primarily for household consumption, often in tiny plots around homes. Semi-commercial gardening — households growing food for both personal use and occasional sale in local markets. Commercial gardening — dedicated cultivation of high-value crops for regular sale, particularly vegetables. Rainy season gardening — taking advantage of the wet season to grow staple crops like maize on any available land, including along roadsides and in public spaces.
Research undertaken in Lusaka reveals that urban agriculture makes a significant contribution to the food basket of many urban households in the city, yet it has remained a peripheral issue in urban development strategies and planning policy . In Lusaka, over half of residents practice urban agriculture to grow their own food . The Lusaka case demonstrates how urban communities can self-organize food production even in the absence of — and sometimes in direct conflict with — supportive government policies. [Image: Small household vegetable garden in an urban setting in Sub-Saharan Africa]
Delhi’s peri-urban agriculture
Delhi offers a very different but equally revealing case study. India’s capital is one of the world’s largest megacities, with a population that continues to grow rapidly. Every day an estimated one thousand people come to live in Delhi, including migrants from poorer states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar . This influx places enormous pressure on the city’s food system and increases urban poverty.
The Imperial College research project
A research project led by Imperial College, based in Delhi and Varanasi, was carried out in partnership with several Indian universities and governmental and non-governmental organizations during the period 1997–2000 . Using digitized satellite imagery and village-level surveys, the researchers documented the nature and extent of agricultural activity in and around Delhi.
The findings were striking. The main urban agricultural area in the core area of Delhi is the floodplain along the Yamuna River . Despite being in the heart of a massive metropolis, significant vegetable cultivation, dairy farming, and other agricultural activities were taking place on these floodplains. Vegetables grown in and around Delhi include cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, spinach, mustard leaves, okra, and tomato .
Who are Delhi’s urban farmers?
Most agricultural practitioners in peri-urban Delhi are landless or marginal landholders working on leased land. They generate temporary employment that depends on seasonal plantation cycles and the availability of electricity for irrigation. Almost 20 percent of surveyed households were landless and 42.7 percent had marginal or submarginal landholdings, indicating high fragmentation of land ownership .
Despite these constraints, the research showed that urban and peri-urban agriculture is not only a dominant and dynamic land use but also an important livelihood strategy for poor people in India, providing families with employment, income, and food .
Policy neglect
One of the most important findings from the Delhi research was the near-total lack of institutional support. India’s agricultural policies have focused strongly on rural areas, and the positive contribution that production closer to cities can make has hardly been acknowledged by government, scientific research communities, or NGOs . This policy blind spot means that urban farmers in Delhi operate without formal recognition, extension services, or access to agricultural credit — making their productivity lower than it could otherwise be.
Why urban agriculture matters for sustainability
Urban agriculture is not a replacement for rural farming. Its production volumes are lower, and it faces constraints that rural agriculture does not — limited land, pollution, legal restrictions, and competition from real estate development. However, its contribution to urban sustainability goes well beyond just food output.
Nutritional health: It provides direct access to fresh produce for populations that might otherwise rely entirely on processed or transported food. Waste management: Composting organic household waste for use in gardens closes nutrient loops and reduces the volume of waste headed to landfills. Environmental quality: Green spaces created through urban farming improve air quality, reduce heat, support pollinators, and enhance biodiversity. Cultural preservation: Urban agriculture allows migrant communities to maintain food traditions and agricultural knowledge, preserving cultural diversity within cities. Community resilience: During crises — whether economic downturns, pandemics, or supply chain disruptions — locally produced food offers a buffer that imported food cannot.
Agricultural activity will continue to be a strong contributor to urban households, and differences between rural and urban livelihood households appear to be decreasing . As cities continue to grow, the line between “rural farmer” and “urban resident” will keep blurring, and policies need to reflect this reality.
Challenges and the path forward
Despite its benefits, urban agriculture faces real obstacles. Many urban farmers want to expand their efforts but are unable to do so because there is not enough land available . Competing demands for residential, commercial, and industrial development consistently push farming to the margins. Other challenges include contaminated water and soil from urban and industrial pollution, lack of legal recognition and insecure land tenure, limited access to credit, seeds, and extension services, and health risks from using untreated wastewater for irrigation.
Addressing these challenges requires intentional policy action. Integrating urban agriculture into urban planning frameworks, providing secure land tenure to urban farmers, investing in clean water infrastructure, and supporting research on safe and productive urban farming methods are all necessary steps. With the right support in policies, infrastructure, and training, urban agriculture can help ensure food security and create jobs .
Promoting urban agriculture for a food-secure future
The examples from Lusaka and Delhi show that urban agriculture is already a reality — people are farming in cities whether or not governments recognize it. The question is not whether it will happen, but whether it will be supported effectively. When 25 to 30 percent of urban dwellers worldwide are involved in the agro-food sector, ignoring urban agriculture means ignoring a major part of how cities actually feed themselves.
Urban agriculture should be actively promoted to achieve food security, enhance sustainability, protect cultural food practices, and improve urban environmental quality. It will not solve the global food crisis on its own, but as part of a broader food systems approach — connecting rural production, urban farming, improved distribution, and waste reduction — it is an indispensable piece of the puzzle.
What do you think? Could urban agriculture play a meaningful role in your city’s food security strategy, and what would be the biggest barriers to scaling it up? How should governments balance the competing demands for urban land between development and food production?