[getsmart-l] Fw: [Food-news] Urban Agriculture - Call for Contributions

[John O'Gorman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Foodnews 
To: food-news at list.web.net 
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 11:40 AM
Subject: [Food-news] Urban Agriculture - Call for Contributions


www.foodnews.ca


      Call for Contributions
      Urban Agriculture Magazine # 19 
      We would like to receive your contribution or suggestions for the next issue of the UA-Magazine:

      NO. 19: SUPPORTING INNOVATIVENESS IN URBAN FARMING SYSTEMS (NOVEMBER 2007) 

      Deadline for Contributions: 1 SEPTEMBER 2007

      The UA-Magazine facilitates sharing of information on the impacts of urban agriculture, promotes the analysis and debate on critical issues for the development of the sector, and the publication of "best" or "good" practices in urban agriculture. 

      The Urban Agriculture Magazine (UA Magazine) is published two times a year on the RUAF-website (www.ruaf.org) and in hardcopy version. This English version is translated in Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese, and Portuguese.

      The UA-Magazine is produced under the RUAF programme Cities Farming for the Future, funded by DGIS (the Netherlands) and IDRC (Canada). 

            The main aim of the RUAF-CFF programme is to contribute to urban poverty reduction, urban food security, improved urban environmental management, empowerment of urban farmers and participatory city governance via capacity development of local stakeholders in urban agriculture and facilitating participatory and multi-stakeholder policy formulation and action planning on urban agriculture, including safe reuse of urban organic wastes and wastewater.  

      The UA-Magazine welcomes contributions on new initiatives at individual, neighbourhood, city and national levels. Attention is given to the technical socio-economic, institutional and policy aspects of sustainable urban food production, marketing, processing and distribution systems. Although articles on any related issue is welcome, and is considered for publication, each UA-Magazine focuses on a selected them (for previous issues visit: www.ruaf.org). 

      We are currently asking for your contribution to the following issue: 

      SUPPORTING INNOVATIVENESS IN URBAN FARMING SYSTEMS 

      Urban farming systems are in constant development. Innovation is continuously taking place. Urban farming systems need to be improved for several reasons:

        a.. Specific urban conditions such as confined space, closeness to urban consumers, special health considerations due to closeness to people, and use of urban organic wastes and wastewater, among others, require specific adaptations; 
        b.. urban farmers who recently migrated to the city bring their rural farming knowledge that may not always apply in the specific urban setting in which they find themselves; 
        c.. urban poor or entrepreneurs who are without a farming tradition but have taken up farming lack relevant knowledge. 
      Urban farmers need technical support to upgrade their knowledge and improve their farming practices. Because urban agriculture often falls outside the mandate of the conventional agriculture research institutes, little research has been done into the development of urban farming systems. Also agricultural extension organizations give little attention to the urban areas. The degree of farmer organization is low in the city and urban NGOs often lack agricultural expertise.

      However, attention to urban agriculture and to research with urban farmers is increasing. Participatory methods for promoting innovation in rural agriculture are also being applied in urban settings, but need adaptation to the different conditions (multiple livelihood strategies, less community cohesion, less possibilities for integrated farming, less indigenous knowledge available, urban markets requiring quicker responses and other types of products, etc).

      This issue of the UA Magazine will be a first effort to take stock of a broad range of experiences involving:

        a.. Participatory methodologies for promoting innovation in urban farming systems, such as joint experimentation, farmer field schools, identifying farmer innovators, exchange visits, using ICT (participatory radio, etc.) 
        b.. New technologies in urban farming that were developed by farmers or together with farmers in response to the specific urban conditions mentioned above. 
      We are particularly interested in experiences showing the process of adapting methodologies and technologies to the urban setting and indicating how innovation of urban farming systems can be stimulated and supported most effectively.

      This issue is a collaborative effort of RUAF (www.ruaf.org); PROLINNOVA, an international learning and advocacy network on promoting local innovation in ecologically-oriented agriculture and natural resource management (www.prolinnova.net); and Urban Harvest, a CGIAR system-wide initiative to direct and coordinate the collective knowledge and technologies of the Future Harvest Centers towards strengthening urban and peri-urban agriculture (http://www.cipotato.org/urbanharvest/home.htm).

      Please share the following aspects of your experience (as applicable) in your article:

        a.. a short narrative on your experience (main goal, where, who implements, target group, activities) 
        b.. the methods applied (how, why this method, why does it work well, with whom - links with NGOs, farmer organisations, municipalities, etc.) 
        c.. the impacts achieved (in which areas, extent, unexpected impacts?) 
        d.. problems/challenges faced and solutions found 
        e.. major lessons learned 
        f.. the way forward (future plans, new partners, support required from whom, etc.).
          
      Articles

      Articles on urban agriculture should consist of approximately 2300 words (three pages), 1600 words (two pages), or 700 words (one page), preferably accompanied by an abstract, references (maximum of 5), figures and digital images or photographs of good quality. The articles should be written in a manner that is readily understood by a wide variety of stakeholders all over the world. We also invite you to submit information on recent publications, journals, videos, photographs, cartoons, letters, technology descriptions and assessments, workshops, training courses, conferences, networks, web-links, etc, especially those relating to this theme.


      Issues of the UA Magazine in 2008

      The following issues will be produced in 2008 and your ideas and contribution of articles are already most welcome:

      No. 20: Productive Use of Urban Water (April 2008)
      No. 21: Role of Urban Agriculture in Crises Situations (Emergency and Rehabilitation (October   2008).


      Of course, all other suggestions and comments on UA Magazine are also welcome. Please take a moment to voice your opinion by sending an e-mail to the editor at ruaf at etcnl.nl, or write a letter to: 


      The Editor UA Magazine 
      RUAF, ETC Foundation 
      PO Box 64 
      3830 AB Leusden 
      The Netherlands
     
        

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