Urban agriculture and shortened supply chain – different approaches to local food production

Abstract

The aim of this article is to describe the supply chains in which urban agriculture operates in four selected cities – Havana, Kigali, Bissau and Singapore. The analysis based on the results of the fieldwork conducted in 2018–2020 comprises both the spatial dimension of the supply chain as well as the number of actors along the products’ route. It is argued here that despite the fact that operating in a shortened supply chain is considered a typical feature of urban agriculture, its benefits depend on local economic, social and spatial conditions, the organization and structure of the supply chain itself, as well as the distance between particular actors and the role they perform. The results of the analysis of diverse cases located in different regions of the world show that the positive effects of bringing food production closer to the place of consumption are indeed not arbitrary and further research regarding the structure of the supply and also value chain is needed.