Towards improving food security in urban and peri-urban areas in Ethiopia through map analysis for planning

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Senait Nigussie
  • Li Liu
  • Kumelachew Yeshitela

Nowadays, food insecurity is intensifying in urban areas of Ethiopia, accompanied by a high food price. This paper aims to explore the capacity of farmlands (field crop areas and vegetable farmlands) to supply food and search for suitable locations for urban and peri-urban agriculture that are low in extent at the moment. Both the capacity assessment and the suitability analysis used overlay analysis with multiple criteria in ArcGIS software. The result shows that 62.4 % of the field crop areas display a medium and 88 % of the vegetable farmlands show high capacity. Furthermore, this paper studied the suitability of bare lands for urban and peri-urban agriculture. The result reveals that 57.2 % of the bare-lands are highly suitable for urban and peri-urban agriculture. Therefore, we recommend the improvement of the capacity of the field crop areas and vegetable farmlands by increasing the potential of each indicator, especially soil fertility, which shows low potential at the moment. We, furthermore, suggest the conversion of suitable bare lands into urban and peri-urban agricultural uses. The implementation of the suggestion might improve food security and contribute to sustainable development, green infrastructure planning, environmental protection, and social cohesion.

Original languageEnglish
Article number126967
JournalUrban Forestry & Urban Greening
Volume58
Number of pages9
ISSN1618-8667
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

    Research areas

  • Capacity, Food ecosystem service, Food security, Suitability analysis, Overlay analysis

ID: 261380345