Food systems at the rural-urban interface

Promoting better market access and market performance for smallholder agricultural producers and the provision of access to better quality and lower price food for the majority of the world’s population requires the strengthening of rural-urban linkages and putting “place-based development†at the centre of policy and investment in food systems. While traditional markets at the level of villages, towns and small and medium cities continue to be the entry point into the food system for the large majority of the world’s smallholders, profound and, in some regions rapid, changes are taking place in the food system from production to consumption. These changes have implications on local economic development within functional rural-urban spaces, on urban and rural livelihoods, and on food security and nutrition. Among the effects of food system change are the exclusion of large numbers of smallholders from modern and more dynamic markets; the concentration of a greater share of value added in the downstream segments of the food system; the weakening of traditional wholesale and retail; shifts in the spatial location of food industry investment in primary, secondary and tertiary preparation and processing; and the increased availability of highly processed food in both rural and urban areas. With these changes, and with appropriate food system related policy, investment and innovation in functional rural and urban spaces, new economic and employment opportunities can emerge depending on how the food system is structured from production through to consumption. The food system should be optimized for distributional gains and with positive impacts on the local economies, on rural and urban livelihoods, on food access and security, and on public health.