LIMA, PERU - The shantytowns of Lima sprawl across one of the worlds most barren deserts. Yet their resourceful inhabitants have found ways to produce everything from sweet potatoes and artichokes to chicken, fish, and pork.

Many of these urban farmers are recent immigrants from the Andes mountains, where agriculture has been a way of life for centuries. Their skills have been put to good use in this burgeoning city of 8 million, providing critically needed food and income to some of the western hemispheres most economically depressed neighborhoods.

As cities grow at unprecedented rates here and around the globe, urban farmers are becoming more important. Under a new initiative launched by CGIAR, some of the worlds leading agricultural scientists will be looking for ways to help those farmers play an even bigger role.

Researchers have been working for years to make rural agriculture more productive and sustainable, said Hubert Zandstra, Director General of the Lima-based International Potato Center (CIP), which will spearhead the effort. In looking at the needs of urban farmers, were pursuing the same goals as we are in the countryside food security for developing countries, a way out of poverty for food producers, and better access to food for consumers.

The US$500,000 Global Strategic Initiative on Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture will link several of the CGIARs 16 research centers with international aid agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and research networks in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Among the sites to be considered for intensive study are Lima; Yaoundé, Cameroon; Harare, Zimbabwe; Manila, Philippines; Accra, Ghana; Beijing, China; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Lusaka, Zambia; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Bogota, Colombia; and Maputo, Mozambique.

By 2015, more than half the worlds population will live in urban areas. Of the nine cities projected to have populations exceeding 20 million, eight will be in developing countries. Feeding the growing numbers, Zandstra said, represents one of the greatest challenges in the history of agriculture.

Urban agriculture can be traced to the worlds earliest civilizations. The Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas all produced food within the borders of their urban settlements. City farms were also crucial to the development of Europe. Indeed, the sites of many modern cities were selected because of their access to water and high-quality land.

Today an estimated 800 million people are engaged in some form of urban farming, whether tending home gardens or working in commercial livestock, aquaculture, forestry, or greenhouse operations.

Farmers in Cairo, for instance, raise 80,000 head of livestock, while 1.7 million inhabitants of Mexico City rely on city dairy farmers for their milk. Ninety percent of the leafy vegetables sold in the public markets of Dar es Salaam are grown within the city limits. In Kampala, Uganda, about 30 percent of the populations need for meat and eggs is met by urban farmers. More than 16 percent of Harares urban area is planted in crops.

In each of these cities, the trend is toward higher and more intensive production. Yet few governments today encourage urban farming or recognize its importance.

We have to focus more attention on urban farmers both on their own needs, and on ways in which they can be more productive, said Wanda Collins, research director at CIP. These people need technology thats appropriate to modern urban realities. Were hoping the research community can produce exactly that.

City-based farming can be extremely efficient, both economically and environmentally recycling domestic wastes, for example, and adding green spaces to urban landscapes. It can also play a role in conserving biodiversity, improving family health, and expanding income options for women with children.

Research will focus not just on productivity, but on a range of environmental, health, economic, and public policy issues. Concerns include the quality of food produced in polluted water, health risks of urban livestock production, and difficulties in regulating informal markets.

At least 10 other CGIAR Centers are expected to take part in the urban farming initiative.

For more information, contact Christine Graves at the International Potato Center, (51-1) 349-6017 (Peru), or (1) 650-833-3365 (US), or by e-mail at: c.graves@cgiar.org Or visit CIP on the Worldwide Web at: www.cipotato.org