Agriculture in the city's countryside Book

Agriculture and urbanization are often considered mutually antagonistic forms of land-use, but in an increasingly urban-oriented world, agriculture depends on city markets and often has to operate within the complex mosaic of land-uses and activities of the urban fringe. This book offers a broad analysis of the nature, structure and relationships of farming in the countryside surrounding cities. From the perspective of resource management and land use planning, the authors explore the biophysical and human dimensions of the organization of peri-urban agriculture and identify four main elements around which they present their analysis, the resource base, the market, the farmer, and the role of government. Case study material from both developed and developing worlds is used to demonstrate how conflicts and problems can be resolved to the benefit of farmer and city-dweller, and by applying systems theory, they put forward a synthesis for understanding how modern agriculture functions under urban influence and how these trends are likely to develop in the future, in the context of conservation, economic factors and technological change.