10. More Than Urban Agriculture: A Case for Planning for Urban Food Security in Harare, Zimbabwe

Urban food security is a growing concern in many cities across the world due to the increasing global challenge to feed the world. This concern assumes increased prominence in the fast-growing cities of the Global South where most of the new urbanisation is taking place. As many cities in the Global North adopt a raft of measures to ensure their cities are food secure, little is happening in cities of the Global South. The few efforts taking place do not always take a holistic approach to urban food security. In many cities, there is a conflation of urban food security with urban agriculture. Officials in the public and non-governmental organisation sectors take urban agriculture to be the most important, if not the only strategy to combat hunger in cities. This chapter challenges the notion of urban agriculture as a panacea to urban food security on its own. Through examining literature on what strategies cities are adopting to address food security and through interviews with key informants, the chapter established that approaches to food security are narrow-minded and misplaced. Officials also display indifference to comprehensive planning for food. A new paradigm shift that takes a food systems approach is recommended.