Urban agriculture and health

With half the world's population living in cities and towns, many poor urban dwellers face problems gaining access to adequate supplies of nutritionally balanced food. For many urban populations, an important source of food is urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA). Production and processing of crops — particularly horticultural crops — and livestock is frequently part of urban and peri-urban livelihood strategies and the food produced forms a large part of informal sector economic activity.  This brief examines the benefits and problems of UPA for the nutrition and health of poor urban and peri-urban populations.