Study title

Urban agriculture is an emerging field, the comprehensive understanding of which is best achieved through an interdisciplinary research approach. Utilising such a strategy, this research will specifically address urban food production and the management of associated health risks. Research objectives include: Identify health risks and health risk pathways; Quantify selected health risks (eg from toxic elements/pathogens); Assess potential health impacts on urban farmers, market workers and consumers; Develop health risk analysis tools (eg contaminant pathway mapping) and; Develop health risk mitigation tools (eg land zoning/crop selection strategies). Research will be constructed around the comparative analysis of three case studies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Hyderabad, India and; Accra, Ghana. Qualitative and quantitative research methods will be combined to identify and map health risks and health risk pathways in urban food production across the three cities. Research tools will include semi-structured interviews; farm, market and consumer surveys; geographical information mapping; water, soil and crop sampling and testing and; health impact survey, assessment and mapping. Through this interdisciplinary approach to the research topics, this project has clear potential for reducing risk in urban food production, having critical relevance for international academics, policymakers, and producer and consumer communities alike.