Connecting Global Priorities Biodiversity and Human Health

contribute to household food security, increase
dietary diversity and reduce the need to resort
to other coping mechanisms used during food
shortages (Gallaher et al. 2013). One of the
remarkable success stories of linking agricultural
biodiversity to urban markets have been African
leafy vegetables (ALVs). A project to promote ALVs
in urban markets in Kenya in 2003 resulted in
significant impacts and outcomes. Growers around
Nairobi who were trained to produce high-quality
ALVs for city supermarkets saw their incomes
increase twenty fold while sales of ALVs in Nairobi
increased by a staggering 1100% (Cherfas 2006).
The IndigenoVeg network, targeting urban and
peri-urban areas, was also successful in promoting
African indigenous vegetables (Shackleton et al.
2009).
The urban street food sector can also play an
important role in urban food security and
nutrition. For example, the urban vendors in
Madurai who sell ready-to-eat, healthy milletbased
porridges have improved access to nutritious
foods and created livelihood opportunities for
the urban poor (Patel et al. 2014). Roberto et
al. (2015) also highlight that local governments
are increasingly using urban planning processes
to ensure that new residential and commercial
developments have adequate access to healthy
food markets such as farmers’ markets and mobile
vendors of healthy foods.
In developed countries such as Australia and the
UK, approaches to urban agriculture have focused
on biodiversity, localization, farmer’s markets,
community gardens and the viability of farms
that occupy or surround cities. In 2008, the City
of Melbourne endorsed the Future Melbourne
Plan which links production, biodiversity and
sustainable consumption by setting out an
ambitious target of 30% of food to be either
grown within the city or sourced from within 50
km of the city by 2020. There are now over fifty
accredited farmers, markets in the larger Victoria
area supplied by some 2000 farmers. Twelve
of these farmers markets are located within
Melbourne’s suburbs, eight within 125 km of the
city, and the rest in rural and regional areas. Rare
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118 Connecting Global Priorities: Biodiversity and Human Health