The manual is the product of collaboration between FAO, Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and several other partners. This collaboration was formally initiated in 1993 when a group of agencies convened in Ottawa to formalise a support group on urban agriculture. FAO formed an internal working group around 1996 and in 1999 its Committee on Agriculture passed a resolution calling for stronger coordination of its activities in this area. This translated into a new Priority Area for Interdisciplinary Action (PAIA) named Food for the Cities. During this period, FAO and IDRC, together with UN Habitat, have staged joint events at global summits, regional forums and workshops.The manual focuses on issues of central concern to urban producers worldwide: access to resources for production; financial constraints; policy and regulatory environment; local government and institutional support; environmental and food quality; and safety standards and group organization. Not only does the manual advise urban producers on how to tackle these issues, it does so by showing and illustrating how much more effective it is for producers to tackle these issues as groups rather than as individuals. It explains how urban producers can be assisted in forming themselves into organizations or how they can strengthen their existing organizations. It distinguishes between issues whose solution lies within a group’s control from those, usually more serious ones, whose solution requires co-operation with other groups and stakeholders.
