The geography of agriculture participation and food security in a small and a medium-sized city in Ghana

Abstract

The debate about the contribution of urban agriculture to urban household food security has not considered the possible differential effects by geography of production activities, focusing either on urban household’s participation in agriculture irrespective of where the activity takes place, or restricting participation to production within urban and peri-urban areas, or more narrowly, production within build-up urban spaces. Using a sample of 2004 households in a small and a medium-sized city in Ghana, this article contributes by disentangling urban household’s participation in agriculture by geography of production activities and the implications for the food security of urban households. We find no evidence from our sample that participation in agriculture in general matters for the food security of urban households. However, urbanites who produced food in both urban and rural areas had better food security in the medium-sized city.