Foodsheds and City Region Food Systems in Two West African Cities
1
Physical Geography, Institute of Environmental Social Sciences and Geography, University of Freiburg, 79085 Freiburg, Germany
2
International Water Management Institute, Battaramulla 10120, Sri Lanka
3
Organic Plant Production & Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics, Universität Kassel, 37213 Witzenhausen, Germany
4
Faculty of Agriculture, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Han Wiskerke
Sustainability 2016, 8(12), 1175; https://doi.org/10.3390/su8121175
Received: 17 August 2016 / Revised: 4 November 2016 / Accepted: 7 November 2016 / Published: 25 November 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue City Region Foodscapes)
In response to changing urban food systems, short supply chains have been advocated to meet urban food needs while building more sustainable urban food systems. Despite an increasing interest in urban food supply and the flows of food from production to consumption, there is a lack of empirical studies and methodologies which systematically analyse the actual proportion and nutritional significance of local and regional food supplied to urban markets. The aim of this empirical study therefore was to compare the geographical sources supplying food to the urban population (“foodsheds”) in Tamale, Ghana and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to record the supplied quantities and to assess the level of interaction between the sources and the respective city. The study was conducted over two years, covering the seasons of abundant and short supply, via traffic surveys on the access roads to the two cities, and in the Tamale markets, resulting altogether in more than 40,000 records of food flow. Results indicated that food sources were highly crop- and season-specific, ranging from one-dimensional to multi-dimensional foodsheds with diverse sources across seasons. Across the commodity-specific foodsheds, city region boundaries were established. Within the proposed city region a relatively large proportion of smallholders contributed to urban food supply, taking advantage of the proximity to urban markets. While food provided from within the city region offers certain place-based benefits, like the provision of fresh perishable crops, a larger geographical diversity of foodsheds appeared to enhance the resilience of urban food systems, such as against climate related production failures.
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Keywords:
urban food systems; foodsheds; city region food systems; food flows; urban food supply; spatial analysis; GIS mapping; climate change
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MDPI and ACS Style
Karg, H.; Drechsel, P.; Akoto-Danso, E.K.; Glaser, R.; Nyarko, G.; Buerkert, A. Foodsheds and City Region Food Systems in Two West African Cities. Sustainability 2016, 8, 1175. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8121175
AMA Style
Karg H, Drechsel P, Akoto-Danso EK, Glaser R, Nyarko G, Buerkert A. Foodsheds and City Region Food Systems in Two West African Cities. Sustainability. 2016; 8(12):1175. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8121175
Chicago/Turabian StyleKarg, Hanna; Drechsel, Pay; Akoto-Danso, Edmund K.; Glaser, Rüdiger; Nyarko, George; Buerkert, Andreas. 2016. "Foodsheds and City Region Food Systems in Two West African Cities" Sustainability 8, no. 12: 1175. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8121175
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