Urban Food Production and Household Food Security in Southern African Cities

As a prelude to promoting an invigorated policy debate on the relationship between urban food security and urban food production, this paper reports the results of the regional baseline survey on urban food security in Southern Africa conducted by AFSUN in 2008. The survey provides an overview of the current state of urban food production in the poorer areas of Southern African and insights into the role of urban food produc- tion as a food source for the urban poor. The survey shows that across the region rates of participation in urban food production in poor urban communities are currently quite low, with some variation between cities. Even more significant is the fact that very few households derive income from the sale of home-produced food. This has considerable implications for the idea that food insecure households are most likely to grow their own food.