Appraising Agroecological Urbanism: A Vision for the Future of Sustainable Cities

Acga Cheng, Nurul Syafiqah Noor Azmi, Yin Mei Ng, Didier Lesueur and Sumiani Yusoff
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Acga Cheng: Functional Omics and Bioprocess Development Laboratoty, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
Nurul Syafiqah Noor Azmi: Functional Omics and Bioprocess Development Laboratoty, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
Yin Mei Ng: Department of Applied Statistics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
Didier Lesueur: School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment–Deakin University, Melbourne, VIC 3125, Australia
Sumiani Yusoff: Institute of Earth Sciences, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-10

Abstract: By the mid-century, urban areas are expected to house two-thirds of the world’s population of approximately 10 billion people. The key challenge will be to provide food for all with fewer farmers in rural areas and limited options for expanding cultivated fields in urban areas, with sustainable soil management being a fundamental criterion for achieving sustainability goals. Understanding how nature works in a fast changing world and fostering nature-based agriculture (such as low-input farming) are crucial for sustaining food systems in the face of worsening urban heat island (UHI) effects and other climatic variables. The best fit for the context is transformative agroecology, which connects ecological networks, sustainable farming approaches, and social movements through change-oriented research and action. Even though agroecology has been practiced for over a century, its potential to address the socioeconomic impact of the food system remained largely unexplored until recently. Agroecological approaches, which involve effective interactions between researchers, policy makers, farmers, and consumers, can improve social cohesion and socioeconomic synergies while reducing the use of various agricultural inputs. This review presents a timeline of agroecology transformation from the past to the present and discusses the possibilities, prospects, and challenges of agroecological urbanism toward a resilient urban future.

Keywords: sustainable agriculture; climate change; urban food systems; resilient cities; soil and plant health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
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