Understanding urban food provisioning in West Africa and its effects on urban food system sustainability
Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Policy, Agricultural Sociology
Physical Geography
Final Report Abstract
In West Africa, rapid urbanisation is a major driver of food system transformation. Given the growing urban population and its heavy reliance on marketed food, surprisingly little is known about how, from where and in what quantities food reaches urban markets. Therefore, the research aimed to assess patterns of food flows to urban centres in West Africa and their underlying causes based on the analysis of primary data on urban food flows and secondary data such as on transport and market networks, climate, and agricultural production. The research also discussed the implications of food supply and trade patterns for resilience and food security outcomes. The results showed that, with regards to storable produce, West African cities often act as nodes in a hierarchically nested food trade network, with rural small-scale producers in the close catchment area of cities supplying directly to cities, and those further afield supplying to other aggregation centres, often towns with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants, which supply onwards to larger cities. This pattern confirms basic principles of early spatial models, such as Christaller’s Central Place Theory, in which smaller settlements with small catchments are nested within the larger catchments of larger settlements. The results also showed that trade in perishable goods is less well reflected in such a hierarchical system, as these goods tend to have shorter supply chains, i.e., fewer intermediaries, although the distance travelled can be long. The direction and length of food flows are also influenced by complementary agricultural suitability between source and destination, as well as seasonality, but poor road access and international borders hamper trade. Finally, historical patterns, including historical market functions, shape the importance of particular settlements as sources. Understanding urban food provisioning in West Africa can inform policies to optimise food supply systems to provide food and income to rural and urban groups more effectively and to become more resilient. Depending on a city’s rank in the food trade networks, different food infrastructure is required within the city, such as crop-specific market and storage facilities. Public infrastructure, including electricity for cool storage and roads, should be developed to connect rural producers to urban market outlets. Better secondary roads are particularly important to ensure that small scale rural producers and traders can integrate into national and international trade networks. Improved access to urban market outlets can increase the ability of producers to switch markets in the event of market disruptions, and diversification of suppliers can increase the robustness supply chains contributing to the resilience of urban food supply systems. The findings contribute to a better understanding of food supply systems in West Africa and beyond, and have been taken up by several research and policy institutions. The underlying primary data of more than 100,000 food flow records have been made publicly available to support applications and modelling in trade, food security, and transport linkages.
Publications
-
Food Flows and the Roles of Cities in West African Food Distribution Networks. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 6.
Karg, Hanna; Bouscarat, Jill; Akoto-Danso, Edmund Kyei; Heinrigs, Philipp; Drechsel, Pay; Amprako, Louis & Buerkert, Andreas
-
A spatio-temporal dataset on food flows for four West African cities. Scientific Data, 10(1).
Karg, Hanna; Akoto-Danso, Edmund K.; Amprako, Louis; Drechsel, Pay; Nyarko, George; Lompo, Désiré Jean-Pascal; Ndzerem, Stephen; Sidibé, Seydou; Hoschek, Mark & Buerkert, Andreas
