Urban agriculture (UA) is a natural fit for IDRC. As Federico Burone, IDRC’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, explains, “UA is a wonderful opportunity to make small but strategic investments in research that can provide people with mechanisms to discover how to be creative at the individual and community level.” The impact of UA extends far beyond simply growing food.

“People migrate from the countryside because they perceive greater security in cities,” says Burone. “But if new migrants to cities aren’t integrated, there will be conflicts and ultimately violence between them and the established residents. By recreating social networks and conditions for dialogue that are severed when people leave their own areas, cultures, and codes of relationships, UA helps migrants draw on their cultural strengths to create new opportunities in cities, while enriching the cities.”

Cooperation is the key to success. “UA can be a powerful entry point for creating a richer sense of community and shared purpose between governments, established residents, and recent migrants,” says Burone. “Ultimately, these bonds are critical to finding ways to foster sustainable cities. UA can help people escape all of the dimensions of poverty — too little or low-quality food, inadequate housing, poor water quality, and so on. You could say that what we’re actually growing is new ways to re-invent social order.”

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