 |
|
Call for Contributions Urban Agriculture Magazine # 20 |
|
We would like to receive your contribution or suggestions for the next issue of the UA-Magazine: NO. 20: SUSTAINABLE USE OF WATER IN URBAN AGRICULTURE (JULY 2008) The Urban Agriculture Magazine The UA-Magazine is produced under the RUAF programme Cities Farming for the Future (CFF), funded by DGIS (the Netherlands) and IDRC (Canada).
The Urban Agriculture Magazine (UA Magazine) is published two times a year on the RUAF-website (www.ruaf.org) and in hardcopy version. This English version is translated in Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese, and Portuguese. The UA-Magazine welcomes contributions on new initiatives at individual, neighbourhood, city and national levels. Attention is given to the technical socio-economic, institutional and policy aspects of sustainable urban food production, marketing, processing and distribution systems. Although articles on any related issue is welcome, and is considered for publication, each UA-Magazine focuses on a selected theme (for previous issues visit: www.ruaf.org). We seek your contribution to the following issue: Sustainable use of water in Urban Agriculture Urban and periurban producers need water (year round or seasonally) for irrigating their crops and provision of drinking water to their animals or fish. Apart from rainwater, other sources of clean water are usually scarce. They use the water of streams and canals (with varying degrees of contamination), shallow or deep wells, pipe-born (potable) water, water collected during the wet season in tanks, drums or other storing method, grey water, recycled municipal wastewater (at different stages of treatment) among others. Producers choices regarding water sources depend on: the intended uses of the water, available and accessible water sources, the price of the water from each source, their degree of contamination and related health risks, the nutrients the water contains, the costs related to the water lifting, storing and distribution equipment needed, the reliability of the supply, farmers’ knowledge (e.g. awareness of health risks), amongst others.In case of water shortages or decreasing quality of the available water sources (chemical pollution; coli bacteria and helminths, salt, irregular supply), urban producers may apply various strategies, including: • seeking to enhance access to actual water source These farmers are important in that they provide the perishable vegetables that feed the cities. In a number of cities around the world, urban producers and other stakeholders engage with policy-makers to develop well-integrated sustainable water management strategies that link provision of water for various urban uses (including urban and peri-urban agriculture) with recycling, sanitation and urban environmental management. In Accra, producers, water users, researchers, trainers, NGOs and policy makers regular meet and work together in a Multi-stakeholder Platform / Learning Alliance, to formulate joint vision, strategies, action plans and projects that integrate water, food and environmental sanitation in the context of sustainable city development . This platform is supported by RUAF and SWITCH. This issue is a collaborative effort of RUAF (www.ruaf.org), SWITCH (www.switchurbanwater.eu) and SuSANa (www.sustainable-sanitation-alliance.org). SWITCH (Sustainable Water Management Improves Tomorrow’s Cities’ Health) is an EU-funded consortium of 33 partner organisations from 15 countries that are working on innovative scientific, technological and socio-economic options for sustainable water management in the “City of the Future”. SuSANa, the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance, is an open global competence network of more than 50 organisations active in the field of sustainable sanitation, developing joint initiatives in support of the UN International Year of Sanitation (2008), and to contribute to the achievement of the MDGs. We are interested to receive your article with well documented experiences regarding sustainable water use in urban and periurban agriculture, especially: We would appreciate if you mention in your article clearly where these experiences have been gained and who were the main actors involved and the conditions under which the activities were developed. The article also should present clearly the impacts achieved, costs related, problems/challenges encountered and solutions found, the major lessons learnt and recommendations for practioners and/or planners and policymakers. Articles Articles on urban agriculture should consist of approximately 2300 words (three pages), 1600 words (two pages), or 700 words (one page), preferably accompanied by an abstract, references (maximum of 5), figures and digital images or photographs of good quality. The articles should be written in a manner that is readily understood by a wide variety of stakeholders all over the world. We also invite you to submit information on recent publications, journals, videos, photographs, cartoons, letters, technology descriptions and assessments, workshops, training courses, conferences, networks, web-links, etc, especially those relating to this theme. Issues of the UA Magazine in 2008 The following issues will be produced in 2008 and your ideas and contribution of articles are already most welcome: No. 21: Role of Urban Agriculture in Emergency Situations and Rehabilitation Of course, all other suggestions and comments on UA Magazine are also welcome. Please take a moment to voice your opinion by sending an e-mail to the editor at ruaf@etcnl.nl, or write a letter to: The Editor UA Magazine |
|