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Towards a Water-Sustainable City of the Future

Please click here to watch this SWITCH video (18 min). "SWITCH is a project supported by the European Commission, a global effort of 33 partners from 15 countries to bring the Water-Sustainable City of the Future one step closer. The SWITCH recipe is a combination of scientific research, innovative technologies and demonstrations in several cities. To find out more about the project, watch the video."


Call for Contributions

Please find here the Call for Contributions for Urban Agriculture Magazine No. 21: Linking Relief, Rehabilitation and Development - A role for Urban Agriculture?



Distance learning courses on urban agriculture

In response to an increasing demand for training in urban agriculture, ETC-Urban Agriculture, RUAF, the Ryerson University’s G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education and Centre for Studies in Food Security are developing a series of distance education courses on urban agriculture in partnership with. The courses are being offered in two modalities: Accredited and Free and self-paced.

For more information click here


Wastewater use in urban agriculture

Please click here to access a recent global publication by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) on wastewater use in urban agriculture called "Drivers and characteristics of wastewater agriculture in developing countries – results from a global assessment".


Policy briefs on peri-urban aquaculture and urban agriculture

Please go to the RUAF publications section to access the following policy briefs:

  • 5 policy briefs (2006) focussing on the recommendations following from the PAPUSSA project to guide policy makers and
    other senior stakeholders in further development of the peri-urban aquaculture sector.
  • 9 urban agriculture policy briefs (2003), produced for the Cities Feeding People programme (CFP) (now UPE) of IDRC, aim to raise awareness, mobilize support for, and strengthen the capacities of municipal governments to implement urban agriculture programs and policies.



RUAF Update #10 now online

Please check here the latest and previous versions of the RUAF Update.


SARNISSA – Sustainable Aquaculture Research Networks in Sub Saharan Africa

This project, funded by the European Commission (FP7) runs for three years and aims to support sustainable urban, peri-urban and rural aquaculture development through linking professionals in Europe and Sub Saharan Africa and will build on an existing knowledge resource base and exchange platform – The Aquaculture Compendium. SARNISSA is a consortium of 8 project partners mainly from Africa and Europe (Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling (co-ordinator UK), CIRAD (France), World Fish Center (Egypt), CABI (UK), Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand), Bunda College of Agriculture (Malawi), IRAD (Cameroon), and ETC (Netherlands). The project is currently identifying interested individuals and organisations working in the field of urban and rural aquaculture in Africa. A stakeholder database will be compiled allowing for better targeted information exchange and cross-country linkages. Interested stakeholders are invited to send their full contact data to Marielle Dubbeling. For general information on the project please contact: William Leschen at the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, Stirling-Scotland. Click here to view the latest press release.


Urban agriculture initiative in Central Africa

A workshop on urban agriculture, participatory governance and social inclusion was held in Bukavu (DR Congo) from 24-28 September. The workshop was organized and supported by DIOBASS (DR Congo), RUAF, Institut de la Vie, DGCD, CECODEL and CGRI (Belgium) and counted with the participation of 7 city teams made up of 3 representatives from national (2 Provincial Ministers of Agriculture) and local government representatives (2 Mayors, a vice-Mayor and a Chef of the City plan) NGOs or Community-Based Organizations and Universities from Bukavu, Butembo, Goma, Kinshasa, Kisangani and Lubumbashi (Congo) and Ngozi (Burundi) as well as with representatives from international organizations (GlobalHort, Tanzania, the African Consortium on Urban Agriculture-Cameroun and IAGU-Dakar). Most workshop participants belong to the regional urban agriculture network established in 2003.

Workshop participants underlined the specific contribution urban agriculture can make to food security and livelihood development in the region, and to respond to specific needs of several vulnerable groups (schoolchildren, HIV-AIDS affected families, poor urban producers). They also identified a number of closely related key factors that prevent urban agriculture to live up to its potential, including the generally low levels of productivity, the lack of working models and knowledge on sustainable intensification of urban agriculture, the limited capacities of support organizations in areas such as technology development, planning, monitoring and evaluation, and financial services for urban agricultural development, and the low level of priority given to urban agricultural development in policy, law making and planning. Please click here to access the full workshop report.

Priorities for the development of regional programmes on urban agriculture in the region were identified as: (1) the development of school gardens, and (2) the strengthening of small urban and peri-urban producers in their production, processing and marketing strategies. A project formulation committee has been put in place and agreements were made to continue promoting urban agriculture development at city, national and regional level. A virtual newsletter, informing all workshop and network participants about progress made and new activities set up, is being disseminated every 3 months. For more information, please contact: Marielle Dubbeling m.dubbeling@etcnl.nl; Sylvain Mapatano (Mapatano_s@yahoo.fr)


UA Magazine no. 19 online

The Urban Agriculture Magazine #19 "Stimulating Innovation in Urban Agriculture" is now published online.


Initiative under Way to Create North American Urban and Periurban Agriculture Alliance

Click here to learn more.


Website survey

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UA-Magazine subscription

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UA-Magazine Survey 2007

Give us your opinion!!!

What do you think of the UA-Magazine? We have sent a survey to all subscribers with the UA-Magazine no 18, but you can also fill out the questionnaire here. If you are unable to submit the survey you can download a word version here and send it by email to ruaf@etcnl.nl. We will use your ideas and comments to improve the Magazine. We appreciate your cooperation: thank you!!