Joburg rooftop gardens bringing agriculture to heart of city living

Food shapes the daily patterns of city life, and food production in urban and peri-urban areas is increasingly regarded as integral to resilient and sustainable city region food systems, says United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UN FAO) director general José Graziano da Silva. “In such food systems, urban and peri-urban agriculture is crucial to the food and nutrition security of poor households, supplying urban residents with fresh, high-value local food, generating employment and creating greenbelts that improve the quality of urban life, and stimulating local economic development,” he says in UN FAO ‘Growing greener cities in Latin America and the Caribbean 2014’ report.