INTEGRATION OF PERI-URBAN FOOD PRODUCTION INTO SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS: A CASE STUDY FROM THE PHILIPPINES Robert J. Holmer 1 , Anselmo B. Mercado 2 , Wilfried H. Schnitzler 3 1 Research Director, Xavier University College of Agriculture, Cagayan de Oro 2 Outreach Director, Xavier University College of Agriculture, Cagayan de Oro 3 Chairman, Institute of Vegetable Science, TU München Prepared for the conference "Rural-Urban Encounters: Managing the Environment of the Peri-Urban Interface", Development Planning Unit, University College London, 9-10 November 2001 ABSTRACT Different survey data pertaining to vegetable production and solid waste management in Cagayan de Oro are presented. Special emphasis is given to the potential of integrating peri-urban food production into improved solid waste management programs and its contribution to food security. Business opportunities for micro- and small-sized enterprise development in urban farming in connection with sustainable waste management strategies as well as issues and actions to further enhance urban and periurban agriculture in the Philippines are formulated. I Rationale The worldwide urbanization trends are clear with fundamental and often rapid changes in socioeconomic, cultural and environmental conditions. This is more dramatic in Asia than elsewhere. Overall forecasts are for 1.5 billion new residents in Asian urban areas over the next 30 years, equivalent to a growth of 137,000 persons per day (UNFPA, 1996). Given forecasts of continuing high rates of rural-population increase and limited rural job opportunities, there is every likelihood of continuing inward migration. Efforts to slow down or stop inward migration have had limited success. While cities are likely to become more important to Asia’s economic growth, such growth is being achieved in many countries at a high social and environmental cost. City administrations are facing huge challenges: to find and create employment, to provide social services and adequate shelter, to dispose an abundance of wastes from private households, commerce and industry by safe means, as well as to ensure food security for their inhabitants (UNDP, 1996, Schnitzler & Holmer, 1998). The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations defines food security as “access by all people at all times to the food required for a healthy life" (FAO/WHO, 1992). The importance of integrating food security in policy programs is underlined by the fact that there are 840 million malnourished people in the developing countries alone. They do not consume adequate calories to lead a healthy and productive life; 75,000 – most of them children – die each day from malnutrition causes (Sanio et al., 1998).