ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the rich heritage and remarkable continuity of practice in agriculture and livestock farming in two exemplary African towns. It proposes to conceptualize urban agriculture and livestock farming as important urban economic practices, especially for poorer parts of town dwellers. Analysis of documents related to planning and agriculture and interviews with experts led Valette and Philifert to conclude that in Morocco urban and rural issues were seen as separate areas. Urban development tends to affect the distances that people need to travel every day, in a number of ways, as urban expansion changes distances between cultivated land and dwelling places: for example, in Kasba Tadla, many of the farmers who provided land for urban extensions have plenty of non-irrigated fields. The data from Morocco indicate that there is a lack of serious support for urban agriculture and animal husbandry in expanding urban agglomerations.
