Urban Agriculture, Cities and Climate Change

Although 40 million people lived in West Africa with 4% in cities in 1930, in 1990 there were about 190 million with 40% being in cities. Projected figures for 2020 indicate that 63% of the estimated population of 430 million will be found in urban cities. Nigeria is not exempted from this scenario. Providing food and fiber for the population will be a burden to all.

This publication contains selected refereed research papers from the Alexander Von Humboldt international conference held in Nigeria in December, 2010. The research papers cover several disciplines from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities to policy studies.

The first chapter contained the paper on urban governance. It dealt with urban resources and their environment to problems with Nigeria cities and prescribed the way forward. The paper that followed was on the role of primary agriculture in processing and nutrition in urban food security. It looked at the historical antecedents of urbanization and the strategies for improved food and nutrition security in urban cities. About four papers examined the issues surrounding climate change and building green productive cities. Case studies were presented and their implications were analyzed.

There were other papers on urban waste management in different parts of Nigeria. The challenges of thermal discomfort and heat stress were highlighted with implication for building design. There were research reports on urban health complications in cities which gave comprehensive analysis of the magnitude of such burden if associated constraints were not tackled.

There were other papers dealing with environmental hazards which drew attention to the environmental sanitation level and the nature or water and food hygiene. Finally there was a paper that examined the issues surrounding desertification and lessons to be learnt from experiences of Israel, Turkey and Egypt.